SSU October 30, 2008

This is the last of my four modules here at SSU. This has been, without a doubt, one of the most life-impacting events I have ever experienced. For one, it is the fulfillment of a life-long dream to go to school, to study in a challenging academic setting, to be exposed to ideas and thoughts beyond the normal boundaries of my life. That dream could not have been fulfilled in a more profound way.

For another, the personal work that God has accomplished in my life through this course has been nothing short of miraculous. In particular, this module He has spoken to me about some personal areas of my life in such a pointed, specific way that I believe I am moving into some areas of freedom and healing that I have been seeking for a long time. Time will tell if that is true or not.

Speaking of time, I want to close this series of writings with a poem that I received while here at St. Stephens. It is about the processes of life, the processes of change. It is a perfect description for me of these last two years of study at SSU.


Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally
impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being
on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability –
And that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually –
let them grow, let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin