Meditation ~ The Beauty of Waiting (Keep Waiting!)

One of the most upsetting things about discernment is when we feel strongly pulled towards something in our hearts, and yet it seems to not work out, time and again.

What should we do?

After many years of riding the cycle of consolations and desolations, I have come to believe most firmly that consolations are exactly what we think they are: encouragement from God to move in a particular direction. Consolations are holy and precious gifts. As St. Ignatius of Loyola reminds us, in times of desolation we need to hold firm to the consolations that first moved our hearts.

What if we discerned wrongly, though? What if things didn't work out and we should change course? Is there ever a good reason to keep hanging in there?

Yes!

From my experience, there are two big ramifications that shape the fulfillment of our desires:

1) God's timing (perfect, and often much slower than we would like)

2) God's way of fulfilling the desire (may be different than how we expect him to)

As long as a certain path grants us consolations, we should keep going in that direction no matter how long it takes, or what obstacles stand in our way. God doesn't fool us. He values our time and resources. He wouldn't give us consolations in an area of life without a purpose for doing so.

On our end, our job is to stay the course and not question our consolations when the going gets tough.  Just because God takes a very long time fulfilling our desires, doesn't invalidate them. There is ample evidence in scripture of God granting desires after exceedingly long periods of waiting. The waiting allows for the purification of our souls, as well as the optimal alignment of life events. We must remember that God works through space, time, and matter; He doesn't skip them. We may instantly apprehend something spiritually, yet it will take time for the matter involved to catch up.

Further, God may have a surprising way of fulfilling our desire. When we experience a consolation, we may think it points to a very particular destination. God takes us where we are and guides us baby step by baby step; it makes sense that we won't fully comprehend the destination at the beginning of the journey. We have to allow Him to surprise us. We must also trust that He will fine tune our consolations along the way so as to navigate us perfectly to our right end.