Peaceful ready, versus impatient ready


Sometimes when we have a sense of big changes happening, of huge new things to come for us, we can get furiously impatient waiting for them to happen – this is what goes on for me, at least: I start looking for signs, for evidence of progress, for the next step on the ladder to climb.

I’m beginning to realise this isn’t the way it works. The way life flows now, progress isn’t linear, it doesn’t follow a clear, step-by-step pattern. When things happen, they appear out-of-the-blue, in a way I could never have imagined or planned for – but the fact that they do happen is not a surprise, because I’ve seen them in visions beforehand.

So why the impatience? When I’ve seen so much evidence of life unfolding in this way, why don’t I just trust it, why don’t I have faith? – because patience isn’t impatience’s opposite; the opposite of impatience is faith.

Today I’ve come to see this in a new way, to look back over my life and see that it has often been in the quiet moments that great things have come.

There will be no evidence of progress, and I have to be okay with that.

So today, despite extreme temptation to impatience, I am calm, peaceful, trusting.

Great things are coming, and I’m peacefully ready.

Are we ready for greatness?


Are the problems we’re wrestling with too small?

Just as our fears shape us with their negative contours, so, too, the challenges we choose to conquer define our lives.

What questions fill our minds during most of our days? Is it

What will I make for dinner tonight?
When will I find time to tidy my desk?
Am I going to be late for my next appointment?
How will I make conversation at the family dinner on Sunday?

Is it

How can I motivate myself to go to the gym?
What car do I aspire to next?
Does that person like me?
or Is my best friend’s brother having an affair, and should I tell his wife?

Or is it

How can I use my enormous, God-given talents to change the world, to create a vision that no-one has conceived of before, and then live it into reality?

If we have to eat a little more simply, or live in a more modest home, would that matter if we were significantly changing the world?

When J.K. Rowling was asked how she found time to write Harry Potter, she answered (apologies if the quote is not 100% accurate – I’m open to correction) “I didn’t clean my house for four years”.

What are you going to not do, so you can do what you have to do?

Joan of Arc was 17 when she answered the call, left her home and led troops into battle for something she believed in.

Do you feel your purpose rising in your chest, undeniable?

Is it time for you to answer your call? I think it’s time for me to answer mine …

To get you in the mood for greatness, try Katy Perry’s “Who am I living for”