“Until God ordains otherwise, a man ought to bear patiently whatever he cannot correct in himself and in others.” (Thomas à Kempis)
The effort to improve oneself or help others do so appropriately is never in vain because it is an act of love. Furthermore, every improvement benefits everyone. Yet one easily encounters limits in this process. One should certainly try again and again and not give up in resignation. The latter would be a misguided attitude, focused not on God but on one’s own feelings.
Thomas à Kempis speaks of patience focused on God. This is quite different from resignation, and the soul, on a path of patience, enters a school of love. It will realize that despite all its efforts and prayers, it cannot bring about the desired improvement. When it turns to God with this realization, it does not lose heart. Instead, it waits and hopes for His intervention. When God brings about change in His own time, it comes to realize all the more that it was God who held everything, both itself and the other people it sought to help, in His hands, and the heart becomes grateful.
God will have put all of its previous efforts to use in His own way because the Lord never overlooks anything we do to please Him.
Yet it is His wisdom to guide things in the way that yields the greatest fruit. We are often unable to judge this. However, we are called to firmly believe and deeply understand that God’s perspective on things and circumstances is always perfect and that He knows the right time. This keeps us from growing weary of doing our part to improve ourselves while at the same time patiently waiting until God changes things!