Here's part 2.
Lately, however, I begin to feel that we have it all wrong. Those times that I have truly been closest to God, I have had no problem tackling things that normally would cause me grave apprehension. It is not a matter of what God “inflicts” so much as how aligned we are with Him, how much we are willing to give.
God knows us better than we know ourselves. He created us to be who we are and achieve perfectly the place we inhabit in life. So why would we not thrill to our task, find it fascinating and enthralling, be pulled back to it time and again? Yes, it may take us beyond what we plan or think we can do, push us out of the comfortable places where we live. Merely being willing to step into that potential discomfort is part of the growth we need to see God’s plan falling into place bit by slow bit.
Such are God’s ways and such is our own reluctant recognition of our own short-sightedness that makes us read C.S. Lewis and wryly laugh in acknowledgment. And then, hopefully, press on past the doubt.
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Flinching Before God
We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.Mother Teresa serving the poor in Calcutta. Pope John Paul II, twisted with pain, unable to speak in his illness and old age. God saying, “This is how I treat my friends, Teresa,” after St. Teresa of Avila was dumped into a large mud puddle. We are in full sympathy when she answers, “No wonder you have so few of them, Lord!” It isn’t just the world that is wary of what it means to really serve God. We, too, tend to lean back a little when we feel that God might be calling us forward for a special task.C. S. Lewis
Lately, however, I begin to feel that we have it all wrong. Those times that I have truly been closest to God, I have had no problem tackling things that normally would cause me grave apprehension. It is not a matter of what God “inflicts” so much as how aligned we are with Him, how much we are willing to give.
God knows us better than we know ourselves. He created us to be who we are and achieve perfectly the place we inhabit in life. So why would we not thrill to our task, find it fascinating and enthralling, be pulled back to it time and again? Yes, it may take us beyond what we plan or think we can do, push us out of the comfortable places where we live. Merely being willing to step into that potential discomfort is part of the growth we need to see God’s plan falling into place bit by slow bit.
Such are God’s ways and such is our own reluctant recognition of our own short-sightedness that makes us read C.S. Lewis and wryly laugh in acknowledgment. And then, hopefully, press on past the doubt.
