SENTINEL WATCH June 18, 2007 Issue

'GOD'S OWN TIME'

RICHARD NENNEMAN

IN THE MIDST of so much unsettling world news in recent weeks, perhaps not enough attention has been paid to the power sharing agreement between the republicans of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party that went into effect in Northern Ireland on May 8. Resulting from the efforts of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and of former US Senator George Mitchell and former President Bill Clinton, the agreement took much perseverance. But it also required patience. Sometimes one must wait for the right moment for former enemies to find a way to agree. "How poor are they that have not patience!" cried Shakespeare. "What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

We all need to practice patience—all the way from waiting for the red light to change to green, to waiting for some life-purpose to work out. In the first instance, of course, you know the light is going to change, and learning to wait without fretting is all that's called for. In the second, you need more of the patience that the Northern Ireland agreement exemplifies. You must be willing to trust and to let all the elements in a situation work out. Maybe someone else has to make the first move, or the time just isn't yet right for a particular project to come to fruition. And the required patience may rest on a breadth of experience that teaches you just how important—and spiritual—this quality is. "Divinity alone solves the problem of humanity," wrote Mary Baker Eddy, "and that in God's own time" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 306).

Waiting for God may be the perfect place to start. This doesn't involve anticipating the right time or the right place or the right people to fit into our plans. Instead, it means trusting His willingness to show us the way and to bring together all the elements of any situation.

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