Now that I'm in my third year of recovery from injuries to my right leg, I think I'm beginning to understand a little bit about God's favorite speed: apart from a miracle, He seems to like SLOW, really slow! Dr. Curt Thompson, a psychiatrist who studies the brain and applies that to our walk with God, wrote along these lines in his blog post One Millimeter per Month from which the following is a quote:"When I was in medical school, we learned that if a nerve is severed, it can begin to regenerate, but only at the rate of about 1 millimeter per month, depending on how serious and extensive the injury is. Some injuries can repair more quickly, up to 1 millimeter per day...Imagine how long it will take for a damaged nerve in a hand to return to health... Even more complicated, what about the neurological implications of relationships that have been traumatized in innumerable ways that seem beyond repair? What has any of this to do with God’s pace?
"What the story of the brain and nervous system seems to reveal is that God is very serious about the change he is bringing about in this world. And his seriousness translates not only into large, sweeping sea changes (think, the work of William Wilberforce or Martin Luther King, Jr.), but perhaps more often in the most microscopic, detailed spaces such as a single moment of restraint when disciplining a child; confessing a wrong done rather than sweeping it under
the rug; or
beginning a practice of regular, rhythmic fasting, solitude, or
journaling in order to open up channels for God’s spirit to have access
to you. None of these latter things listed would seem in and of
themselves to change the world. No journalist will cover these events
for the Washington Post. But if neurons only grow at the pace
mentioned above, it will take lots of practice, and lots of time to coax
them to create new networks. If God has made me with neurons, then I
can’t change any faster than they can..."Now, if I begin to pay attention to this reality, this awareness of God’s comfort with his own pace, perhaps I need not worry so much that I’m not changing quickly enough—more importantly, that others are not changing quickly enough either. And the odd thing is, when I am less worried, I am more likely to be open to the changes I so long for in the first place, especially if I am closely connected with others whose pilgrimages are moving in the same direction."
Now that I'm beginning to see a bit of daylight in my recovery, I'm not only more aware of what seems to be God's preferred speed of working but am also beginning to appreciate the wisdom that I see in the slower pace and the detours and roadblocks that come along the way to make the already unbearably slow 15-miles-per-hour speed come to a full STOP from time to time.
As Dr. Thompson says, if God is comfortable with this pace, then perhaps we can find peace in the slowness of His working and reap the fruit of patient daily perseverance.
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