By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

You have amazing caverns and waterfalls in East Tennessee. Denise and I enjoy hiking along streams where the sound of water provides ambient “white noise” to accompany the bird songs and rustling leaves. While the recent floods remind us of water’s power when lots of it moves all at once, stalagmites and carved granite show us what small amounts of water over a long time can do. Anyone who has left really dirty dishes to soak overnight knows the joy of letting water do the hard work for you.

Much of what happens in God’s kingdom takes time. Jesus used metaphors emphasizing patience: plants growing, delayed weddings, yeast working its way through dough. All these parables remind us that faith is more staying on task while we wait for results, rather than some sort of transcendent metaphysical experience. We hang in there with goodness, care, kindness, joy, even when it seems nothing is happening. Keep reading after the “To everything there is a season” passage in Ecclesiastes, and you’ll come upon one of the nicest words in that book: “He makes all things beautiful in His time.”

I struggle with this. Maybe it’s because of my Myers-Briggs J tendencies. Trusting God to work things out His way, in His time, is not my strong suit. Yet that is essential to the workings of the Kingdom. We let the Living Water do its work through us slowly, gracefully, carving beauty out of resistance. We may not see the finished product during our journey here. That’s okay, as long as we never stop letting God’s love flow through us. That’s our job, let God do His.