Just when I said I was going to live with joy this week, what should surface in my life but fear from the changes around me, changes that bring disquiet and unease into my heart.
I can just hear the Lord gently challenging me, "How strong is your faith? If you believe in me, then you know I will take care of you, no matter what. Haven't I already done so all these years?"
And I, of course, have to hang my head low for what I am facing right now is nothing compared to what I had to previously. What is more galling is my faith seems weaker at present, compared to what it was.
It's ironic but it's the niggly changes that eat away at my equanimity more so than the obvious and gargantuan ones.
Here is where I have to fight my inclination to atrophy in complacency and relive a fundamental truth: death leads to new life.
Change is inevitable. Situations and relationships must evolve, and in the process, die many deaths in order to give birth to new possibilities that are unimaginably rich and portentous.
Rather than avoid or resist change which is both a useless exercise and a waste of psychic energy, I must trust in God's plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11-13), be open to how the future unfolds and have sufficient faith to adjust accordingly without cowardly deviations that subvert my integrity.
If I continue to seek God's will in my life with fierce single-mindedness, I will not lose sight of the truth of who I am and what I should be doing, come what may, and I can then forge ahead.
G.K. Chesterton said: "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms: it means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die."
I don't have to like the changes that are happening around me, but I can still live with peace and joy in my heart.
All it takes is a little courage.
I can just hear the Lord gently challenging me, "How strong is your faith? If you believe in me, then you know I will take care of you, no matter what. Haven't I already done so all these years?"
And I, of course, have to hang my head low for what I am facing right now is nothing compared to what I had to previously. What is more galling is my faith seems weaker at present, compared to what it was.
It's ironic but it's the niggly changes that eat away at my equanimity more so than the obvious and gargantuan ones.
Here is where I have to fight my inclination to atrophy in complacency and relive a fundamental truth: death leads to new life.
Change is inevitable. Situations and relationships must evolve, and in the process, die many deaths in order to give birth to new possibilities that are unimaginably rich and portentous.
Rather than avoid or resist change which is both a useless exercise and a waste of psychic energy, I must trust in God's plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11-13), be open to how the future unfolds and have sufficient faith to adjust accordingly without cowardly deviations that subvert my integrity.
If I continue to seek God's will in my life with fierce single-mindedness, I will not lose sight of the truth of who I am and what I should be doing, come what may, and I can then forge ahead.
G.K. Chesterton said: "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms: it means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die."
I don't have to like the changes that are happening around me, but I can still live with peace and joy in my heart.
All it takes is a little courage.
*******
Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.
-Alice Mackenzie Swaim
No comments:
Post a Comment