The Wisdom of Ripening
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” — Mark 4:26–27
The tomatoes are finally beginning to turn red. For months, I walked the rows at our farm, looking at green tomatoes. Every day, they grew bigger but stayed green. I checked them each morning and evening, searching for any sign they might be changing. Then, almost overnight, they did. The first hint of red showed up. A few days later, another tomato started to change. Now the season is starting to shift.
Every year, I forget the same lesson. Watching closely doesn’t make a tomato ripen any faster. Being impatient doesn’t change anything. A tomato ripens when it’s ready.
An old Chinese story tells of a farmer who became frustrated that his seedlings were not growing quickly enough. Determined to help, he spent the day walking through his field pulling each young plant upward.
That evening he returned home exhausted but proud of his work.
“I have spent the entire day helping the seedlings grow,” he told his family.
The next morning every seedling was dead.
I appreciate that story because it reveals something about human nature that has not changed in thousands of years. We want growth, but we struggle with the pace of becoming. We want healing, but we resist the time it requires. We want wisdom, but we prefer information. We want transformation, but we often expect it on our own schedule.
The German sociologist Hartmut Rosa says that modern life is built around speed. Our economies need to keep growing, our technology keeps advancing, and our institutions keep expanding. Going faster feels normal. Slowing down starts to feel like failure.1
It is not difficult to see how that logic seeps into our souls. We become impatient with grief, impatient with relationships, impatient with our children, impatient with our congregations, impatient with ourselves.
We assume that if something important is happening, it should be visible. If growth is real, we should be able to measure it. If transformation is occurring, we should see immediate results.
The farm teaches otherwise.
Most growth happens underground. Roots deepen before leaves appear. Seeds break open long before anything emerges above the soil. For weeks, the tomato looks the same. Then one morning, it starts to turn red, showing that change was happening the whole time.
Evelyn Underhill spent much of her life reminding people that spiritual growth is not separate from ordinary life.2 It happens in the midst of our daily struggles, relationships, failures, and joys. Growth is not an interruption of ordinary life. Growth is ordinary life. Most of what matters happens beneath the surface while we’re busy looking for proof.
The same is true in our spiritual lives. The same is true in communities. The same is true in history. A friendship ripens. Trust ripens. Courage ripens. A sense of calling ripens. Even hope ripens.
Rainer Maria Rilke advised a young poet to “be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.”3 I have come to think that patience is not quite the right word. Patience sounds passive. Ripening is active. Something is happening. Something is growing. Something is becoming. We simply cannot rush the process. We must come to love the questions, the mysteries, themselves.
The challenge of faith is trusting growth when we cannot yet see the fruit. That may be one of the deepest lessons the farm teaches me every year. The tomatoes do not become tomatoes because I worry about them. The cucumbers do not grow because I check on them. The blackberries do not sweeten because I am impatient.
Life moves to rhythms bigger than what I want. Perhaps wisdom begins when we stop pulling on the seedlings. Perhaps maturity begins when we learn to cooperate with the pace of becoming. Perhaps faith is trusting that even the green tomatoes are moving toward ripeness.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where in your life are you tempted to pull on the seedlings?
What part of your life feels unfinished, unresolved, or slower than you would like?
Looking back over the past five years, where can you now see growth that was invisible while it was happening?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For the Grace to Ripen
God of seasons, You formed the mountains slowly, the forests slowly, the rivers slowly. You shape human lives with the same patient care. When we become anxious, teach us trust. When we become impatient, teach us steadiness. When we mistake speed for growth, remind us that wisdom ripens. Help us honor the work happening beneath the surface, the roots deepening in darkness, the transformations we cannot yet see. Give us the courage to cooperate with your timing rather than demand our own. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Visit Something Growing
Today, spend fifteen minutes with something alive. Sit beside a tree. Walk through a garden. Visit a farm. Watch a patch of wildflowers. If none of these are available, observe a single houseplant.
As you sit, consider how much of what makes this living thing possible remains invisible.
The roots.
The soil.
The microorganisms.
The water moving beneath the surface.
The countless days of growth that no one witnessed.
Then ask yourself: What unseen growth may be occurring in my own life right now?
Resist the urge to answer immediately. Let the question accompany you throughout the day.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
TODAY!!!!! June 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
June 30, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are reading our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for an 18-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
June 29, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
My friends over at Spiritual Wanderlust have some of the coolest classes. One I am particularly drawn to is their Celtic Spirituality School where you get to learn from people like John Philip Newell, Ilia Delio, Carl McColman, Sharon Blackie, and more. Read more about their program.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity (Columbia University Press, 2013).
Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life (1937)
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Letter Four, July 16, 1903.
Just received Sharon Blackie’s new book, Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now. Can’t wait to read it!!
Dag Hammerskjold said,"patience is not passive; it is concentrated strength".