people in process

Any time we meet someone we're encountering them at only one point on a line. That point---such as Sunday, October 5th at 9:55pm or Thanksgiving 2007 or the day they took up the clarinet---is just that: one moment in the whole span of his/her life. He/she is a person who is growing, or at least a person who is becoming the person who he/she will eventually become. As much as it is useful to remember that our living, thinking, speaking and acting happens only in the present, we would do well to be mindful that we are all persons in process.

This would give us

• humility to accept that we all must grow
  
• patience not to stamp and fret upon the pace of that growth
  
• space to let the Spirit be the quiet power that compels our growth
• safety to speak the thoughts of our minds and work out the movements of our hearts
• freedom to speak correction and disagreement without being dogmatic
• freedom to listen to our brother and to be thankful for God's gifts to him
  
• freedom to receive our sister and not to make our thoughts of her only worries
  
• a fresh call to prayer every day