Accepting With Grace Both Time and Place

We are so many times in the wrong place and at an inappropriate time. We wish to give a provision of care, but we cannot because not all things are as they should be. This we best accept: that’s wisdom, along with the courage to know when to say or do something and then in simply doing it.

There is such a thing as the right action that meets with the inopportune moment, just as there seems sometimes the opening to say or do something that should never be said or done.

Life is a mystery in many of these constructions of being.

Discerning the flow of message and method and timing and place (not to mention tone) is an enigmatic process. Nobody ever masters it, even though some seem to. Those that seem to master these inscrutable things have learned the skills of discernment, but never is there a perfect fashion of ‘divining’ the precise season-and-mood for things.

Still, we try, and we are forgiven for trying. Well, we must try. We are condemned if we don’t. But just as much we can be condemned if we do.

The real blessing enfolds to the fact that we can hold everything patiently in balance if we understand that no matter how perfect something seems to say or do, sometimes there isn’t the time or place to do it.

Indwelling Patience

Jesus was described by the Early Church Father, Cyprian of Carthage, as “Perfect Patience.”

Our greatest investment in wisdom is knowing and accepting that following Jesus’ trait toward patience this way redeems maturity, especially as others observe it in us.

We ought to ask God that patience would indwell us by his Spirit; that, when we accept the limitation of both the time and place we are in, despite our anxiousness to do or say a thing, we become aware of how good it is to get out of the way of God’s perfect will.

We too often get in the way of God. When we allow patience to dwell within us we can sense God’s Spirit gently leading us in appreciating there is a more limited space for pre-meditated action than we realise.

But there is a great amount of space for acting in accord with God’s perfect will. We need patience.

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There is always the right action or word to say that can be said at the wrong time or at the wrong place. Obeying God’s perfect will is about being patient and waiting for the God-appointed opportunity and not doing a thing before its time. Wisdom is underpinned by patience.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.