We all have hopes. We all have fears. We’re all human and those are parts of our nature. But oh, the suffering hopes and fears can bring. They can fill us with doubt, with longing. We try to control them. We do. But it can be challenging, to say the least.
So what do we do?
We find ways to try to exercise control, to find comfort, solace, peace. Some of us go to parties and try to distract ourselves. Some of us withdraw and look within. Some of us turn to the powers that be (or whatever you choose to call them/it/him/her) in search of help.
So what if you’re one who turns their attention toward the spiritual realm? Why is it that we sometimes feel we go unheard, our requests, our pleas unanswered?
I will not claim to know or understand why some desires are answered and some are not, but I would like to give you a little spiritual food for thought…a little something to consider the next time you feel you are being denied.
I was watching a show (Ghostly Encounters on the Bio channel, to be exact…don’t judge. *wink*) and a woman named Honey was telling of her son’s illness and imminent death. She sat by his bedside, praying and asking her deceased father for help and guidance. Later, after her son’s transfer to another hospital for treatment, she waited in the chapel for word on her son’s condition. As she sat she felt her father’s presence sit next to her and put his arm around her shoulders…and then she heard his voice clear as a bell. His words? “God’s delay is not God’s denial.” Shortly after this reassurance from the other side the doctor came to tell her that her son, after clinging to life for so long, would make a full recovery.
Honey’s story moved me to tears for so many reasons, but what really stood out was the wisdom her father whispered to her during her hour of need. Delay is not denial. We are so impatient. We want results, answers and gratification as soon as we ask for it. It is important we realize that our clock is not the same as the cosmic clock. Our time line is not the same as the universe’s time line. Some things take time. Sometimes when we ask for help or guidance or hope, when we ask for love or healing or comfort, when we ask for the seemingly impossible, for that which is beyond our reach, beyond our control we need to do that which is most difficult: exercise stillness and patience and remember that delay is not denial. Delay is not denial.
Kisses & Chaos,
Alli Woods Frederick
image credit: Untitled by Alli Woods Frederick. all rights reserved.
