Pearls of Wisdom from "The Prologue"

While looking for a saint commemorated on November 30/December 13 in St. Nikolai's(Velimirovic) "The Prologue", I came across his "Contemplation" for that day:

Contemplate the spiritual fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3):

1. How the serpent provoked greed and pride in Eve;
2. How the greedy and proud woman transgressed God's comand and ate of the Tree of Knowledge;
3. How Eve sinned, not in the midst of poverty or need, but in an abundance of all things.

WOW. That last line knocked me for a loop. I had never thought of The Fall like that before. While the Church has made a beautiful allegory between Eve and Theotokos Mary (Eve being the disobedient female that initiated the fall of mankind and the expulsion of man from Paradise while the Mother of God has become the obedient female that initiated the opening of Paradise to man by agreeing to God's request that she carry His Son), I never thought much before about Eve doing this all in the complete comfort, security, and perfection of life in the Garden. How unsatisfied and ungrateful she was for everything she already had, that she had to seek even more. I further pondered—why did she feel like she needed to seek more than she already had???

As I read this, I wondered: How much more do I myself do this? It was easy to see Eve's ultimate ingratitude, but as it often is, harder to see my own. This was for sure a big eye opener for me. We are all given so much, and oftentimes, we go off and seek something else that isn't necessary for us...it can even cause us harm.

In his "Texts on Prayer", St. Nilus of Sinai (+5th century) echoes this in saying,

"How many times have I prayed for what seemed a good thing for me, and not leaving it to God to do, as He knows best, what is useful for me. But having obtained what I begged for, I found myself in distress because I had not asked for it to be, rather, according to God's will."

A desert Father (also named Nilus), Abba Nilus (or perhaps the same Nilus?), adds this sentiment:

"Do not be always wanting everything to turn out as you think it should, but rather as God pleases, then you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer."

To me, that is pure, unadulterated, humble gratitude, meekness, humility, and faith in God. If a person can pray about something and put it 100% completely in the hands of God, and still be thankful regardless of how it turns out—because they know that God knows better than them and knows He is working out the method of their salvation—they are able of course to be thankful and undisturbed. When things don't turn out the way that we should, instead of being angry about it (and thusly be unthankful), we should look at the bigger and deeper picture. God is at work in our lives; He ALWAYS is, even if we don't see or feel it.

What it boils down to is trust in God, because only He truly knows what's best for us. And that means even if whatever we're pursuing seems like a good idea to us, and even if we have the purest intentions. The old addage runs true: "Be careful for what you wish for, because you just might get it!" (or "be careful for what you pray for..." or "be careful of what you pursue..."; it's all the same idea). This is what faith is...trusting God enough to put Him in charge of our lives. And for the things that are in accordance to God's will that we ask Him for, we need to remember that these things can happen, but they are in God's time, not ours. That is frustrating to me, because I find myself wanting to be in charge all of the time and for things to happen according to my timeline. I recognize this to be an issue of pride in myself and I'm struggling feverishly to work on this. It's hard to have patience, living in a fast-food-paced world. :-)