Seek, Wait, Trust

Today with Julian, April 21st
Easter Monday

Now it is God’s will that we have three things in our seeking:

The first is that, without laziness, we seek as intentionally and energetically as we can
through His grace, gladly and merrily, without useless despair or undue sorrow;

The second is that we wait upon Him steadfastly for His love,
without grumbling or rebelling against Him, until our life’s end –
for it shall last only a little while;

The third is that we trust in Him mightily in fullness of faith, for this is His will.
We know He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all who love Him,
for His working is secret, but He wants to be seen.

His appearing shall be swift and sudden; and He wishes us to trust Him in this,
for He is most courteous, and most homely, blessed may He be!

(Mother Julian, Chapter 10)

These look like three different things, but truly they are all part of one orientation to life and to God.

Trust Mightily
Seek Energetically
Wait Patiently

Each one encourages and enables the other two. Seeking Energetically and Waiting Patiently seem to the world to be mutually exclusive. But to the person of Faith, they are two parts of Trust. They are the two sides of prayer – Active and Contemplative. In Active Prayer we storm the gates of heaven. Intentionally, gladly, and merrily we pursue God. In contemplative Prayer we wait in silence, without complaint, without expectation. These are not opposites, not even two ways of doing the same thing – they are one, just as body and spirit are one. The great paradox of prayer is that when we are the most Contemplative, we are also the most Active. This seeming paradox is enabled by Trust, and it, in turn, enables Faith. And these three – Trust, Seek, Wait – are not Three, but One.

Trust in, Seek for, Wait upon, the One who Wants to be Seen.

~ Will, ObJN