As a child I was fascinated by the television show Bewitched. I dreamed of having Samantha’s ability to twitch her nose and make a messy room neat as a pin, a broken lamp unbroken, or dress and be ready for a fancy party straight from her housework clothes. The word fascinate itself means to bewitch, enchant, or put under a spell, which seems very appropriate for the other-worldly attraction the instant fix has on humans.
Today, makeover shows and reels of every kind give us the satisfaction of extreme change and restoration in a half-hour or less. The dopamine hits that were once reserved for such long worked-for events as bringing in the year’s harvest or completing a piece of fine craftwork are now readily available to all scrollers with a few minutes to spare.
These forms of entertainment train our brains to constantly look for and expect the next delight, rather than to be present to the simple pleasures of the moment. Small progress is rarely noticed and sometimes even derided.
Poco y Poco
In direct opposition to our culture’s adoration of the instant fix and rapid makeover is Our Lord’s way of a little at a time. Training us in many virtues, including patience and humility, and taking baby steps and being satisfied with them is another way Jesus and His Church run countercultural. Eschewing the world’s ways and choosing instead to start small allows God room to move in our hearts and in our lives.
As opposed to the quick makeover or the weekend warrior project, scripture offers us the often-used saying, do not despise the day of small beginnings, which has its roots in the biblical passage Zechariah 4:6-10:
Then he said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, and not by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you become a plain. He will bring forth the first stone amid shouts of ‘Favor, favor be upon it!’”…For whoever has scorned such a day of small things will rejoice to see the capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel.
This story demonstrates that we testify to our trust in the Lord when we pray, trust, and take the next, often humble, step God shows us.
Famed Spanish artist and architect Antoni Gaudi began construction of La Sacrada Familia in 1882. When asked about the painfully slow building process, Gaudi famously replied, “my client is not in a hurry.” One hundred years after his death, the glory of a work offered to God is complete. As cathedrals go, 144 years was fairly quick, given that some have taken 500 or more years to complete. Whole generations of artisans came and went knowing their work for the glory of God would continue long after they were gone. They themselves did not live to see the coveted “finished product” but that did not deter them from making their contribution.
When we do not despise the day of small beginnings but instead choose to begin something God has placed on our hearts, we show that we trust Him with all things, including our time.
Trust Sometimes Seems Impractical
Not being comfortable with either of the two major political parties’ ballot offerings in the most recent presidential election, I looked into a third option. The worldly-wise voice in my head gave me the same old practical warning that voting for a third party would be wasting my vote or worse, be equal to voting for the party I disagreed with more. But God gently whispered, do not despise the day of small beginnings. He was essentially whispering, trust me and vote your conscience. My conscience found that every single item of Catholic Social Teaching is included in that third party’s platform, and nothing is included that runs contrary to it.
I made the prudential judgement to trust God and not despise the day of small beginnings. As expected, the candidates I voted for only received about 42,000 votes nationwide. A small beginning indeed, but our votes were offered as a voice affirming another option besides an angry stand-off between two very different and deeply flawed ways of governing. Even more, our votes affirmed the hope of small beginnings.
God’s Pace is Not Our Pace
Bewitched, makeover shows, and even political promises can instill unrealistic dreams of how change happens and work gets done. More than that, these and other cultural influences teach us to despise slow change and alter our pace of life. When an advertisement at the gas pump on June 6th tells you that the holiday season is right around the corner, something important is off.
The world attempts to program us to rush, hurry, and leave the present moment rather than be present and trust that God will arrange all as we take care of the duty of the moment and attend to the people that He has placed before us to love. We are trained to work like machines and program our lives to such an extent that there is no apparent need to slow down, be present, and listen for God’s guidance. It’s full steam ahead at all times.
However, when we choose to be present and live at a human pace, we are increasingly able to hear God’s whispers and respond to them. When we do this, we discover that God rightly orders our time, along with everything else with think we need to take care of on our own. When we share Jesus’ yoke and follow His pace, things go much better, even if they go more slowly.
Nowhere in the gospels is there a description of Jesus rushing about. The only quick makeovers He performed were His miracles which came directly out of His life of deep prayer union with the Father. Jesus’ life is a model for us in how we were created to live and thrive. Let us trust God enough to live life one moment, one step at a time, inviting, not despising, the days of small beginnings.
Patient Trust
A Prayer by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
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
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
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.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
