“You should walk at His pace, not at your own.” (Saint Josemaría).
The other day I went for a walk with a couple of my very young nieces and nephews.
Each of the children were supposed to sit in their stroller and get pushed along my their mothers, but as often happens while on a walk with cousins, one of the little girls wanted to get out and walk for a little bit and then another did.
And so it was that what had started as a brisk morning walk, turned into a long dawdling stroll. You see, though we adults could walk as quickly as we liked, our pace was restricted by the pace of the little children walking with us.
And I have been thinking about that ever since…
Saint Josemaría wrote in his book, “The Forge” at 531, “You say yes, you are determined to follow Christ. All right. Then you should walk at His pace, not at your own.”
And when I was walking beside those children that day, at a snail’s pace (so to speak), I realised that this is what I do to my Beloved…
You see, just as their mothers provided the children with a lovely comfortable stroller to sit in while they drove them along the path, so too does God provide me with the means to get to where He knows that I need to be.
And the problem that I have is the same problem that those children had that day on that walk. I wish to do things my own way and with that all I do is get in the way. And just as those little children were very very tired by the end of that walk, so too do I get very very tired through my resistance of the Will of the Prince of Peace.
And when I think about that today, it occurs to me that it is really such an easy thing for me to simply make myself an obedient child and sit quietly in my stroller and allow my eternal Parent to take me to where He wants me to be. In fact, if this is the way that I chose to approach my life and my role as a child of God, then all that I will need to do is settle down for the walk and allow myself to rest inside the stroller that God has provided me for life.
Because there is one thing that I know for sure, and that is that those little children who were so determined to walk for themselves on that walk, finished that day utterly exhausted from the effort. If instead they were able to sit inside their stroller, not only would they have arrived at their destination sooner, but they would have arrived well rested and able to cope with the end of their day.
And when I think about that today, it occurs to me that I have to just settle down in this life. For God is taking me to exactly the place that I need to be at HIS pace, and not my own…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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