Twenty years or more ago my father advised me to make sure I had a lasting power of attorney in place well ahead of needing it. We have recently gone through the tortuous process of creating and registering the necessary documents so that we can be supported should it become necessary. It is a long job.
A friend is about to move house. The dates have been altering, delayed by the necessary searches that must be completed before completion can take place. I felt the pain of his frustration with the process.
I have just read today’s leader in the newspaper (30th January) expressing the view that the assisted dying bill should be allowed to ‘time out’ because it is poorly drafted. Whether or not you support the assisted dying bill it seems unwise to have poorly drafted legislation on the statute book.
The time it takes to follow due process in significant matters drives us wild with frustration but it protects us from our wilder flights of fancy when we try to do things over quickly, cut corners and risk bad long-term outcomes.
The timescales of God can be frustrating. Answers to prayer may come slowly and not be as requested. God’s purposes are just and fair, and when things do not move at our speed or as we demand, that may be for our long term good.
There is a hymn by John Greenleaf Whittier, (not in Singing the Faith or Hymns and Psalms but number 55 in Rejoice and Sing), which goes:
‘All as God wills, who wisely heeds
To give or to withhold,
And knoweth more of all my needs
Than all my prayers have told.’
It is often the case that we are not entirely aware of what is good for us as we cannot foresee the future.
A Prayer
Loving God, thank you that you are never manipulated by our schemes of the moment but that everything fits into the due processes of your timings and plans. Help us to accept due process that is designed for our protection, whether earthly or heavenly, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.