Do you not see how you heap up words, demanding immediate favor as though commanding God? Where is the patience that endures delay, that trusts the Physician of souls and bodies to act in His own time? You cry for a face made perfect with no waiting, yet the Lord often defers healing to manifest constancy, to cut away every plea of impatience. The woman with the issue of blood waited long years; others received healing at once, not because they were better, but because some are made stronger through delay.
And what is this fierce urgency? You seek a surgeon’s skill to fix your skin, but what of the soul’s disfigurement, the blemishes of covetousness and pride? The grass of the field is more precious than the finest appareling or the fairest face, and yet you are dazzled by outward comeliness. If you persuaded the Lord at first application, you would need no clamorous cries.
Be not so eager for unnecessary things, building up the flesh while despising the hungry within your own heart. Need you not patience, that having done the will of God you might receive the promise? You stand at the very crown, only endure the delay of the crown. Instead of demanding supernatural favor to force another’s compassion, seek the grace that fortifies, that makes no request of man but stands in favor with the King.
Then even if appointments fail and surgeons delay, you will feel no distress. Pray rather that you may be well-pleasing to Him, that your alms of spirit be judged by the largeness of your mind, not by the shrinking of your waiting. For if we restrain ourselves from this frantic need, we are no longer slaves to what others give; we gain respect from the Giver of all. Let your prayer be humble: “Lord, if it be Thy will, grant healing in Thy time; above all, heal my soul and teach me patience.” Then the true beauty, which is not of grass, will shine.