The ‘Slow Work of God’

The Good News is that the spirit dwells within each one of us and we are all pilgrims on a journey to God. The spirit is continually at work in our lives and every experience is an opportunity for growth and for a deepening of life within us. However, the problem can be that sometimes we don’t recognise that ‘God comes to us disguised as our life’ (Richard Rohr) and we can’t believe that our experience could be the place of divine encounter, having meaning. Often, too, we face enormously challenging situations of illness, suffering and loss, that seem initially too awful and distressing to have any other significance. Finding God in the messy bits and pieces of our lives is enormously challenging. Many prefer to escape in sanitised, blissful and ‘holy’ experiences far removed from the daily hubris that surrounds us. The challenge remains to believe that God is with us and while not causing life’s chaos and unpredictability, works powerfully to shape and mould us through these experiences.

Excerpted from Discover God Daily  by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (p.6)