Faith

When there is so much uncertainty in life, how do you know how to step out in Faith? Which way to step? Sometimes it feels like all the balls are in the air, nothing is in your hands. Truthfully, it's always that way, but sometimes the Lord lets you feel it more acutely. And when a new year starts that way, you have to wonder where you will end up in 365 more days. That's where I am. Standing in the doorway of 2011, wondering. Baffled.

I have been trying to come up with that word... a word to hang on to for the year, to work toward, to be guided by. I still don't know. I'll let you know when (if) I figure it out!

Am I being annoyingly vague? Sorry. It's just how our life is right now. If there's anything I feel sure of today, it's that we must more and more closely tune our ears to the Voice that whispers to us on a "need to know" basis. We must constantly think in terms of His Will. Where do you want me now, Lord? What work can I do here, with this challenge? Show me where my next steps should go. Better yet, carry me, Lord. Only You know the way. 

We have been here many times before, but not perhaps so completely. That feeling of control we so often take comfort in? It's just an illusion. When it's stripped away, that awful feeling is really a blessing in disguise. Then we really live in truth, the knowledge of our dependence on Him for our every breath. It's OK not to have all the answers, if we put our confidence in God.

I'm stealing this spectacular scripture quote straight off a post from Flower Patch Farmgirl, because it is so powerful for these moments we all face sooner or later.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
-James 4:13-16 NASB

Wow. I don't know about you, but that makes me really uncomfortable, yet its truth resonates. So I'm choosing to also hang on to another verse which, together with the one above, gives me the security to forge ahead with the expectation of unknown blessings in the year ahead.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.
-Jeremiah 29:11 NASB

Praying for unique blessings and a knowledge of God's care to carry us all through 2011!

November Ponderings

Well, I never had any visions of discussing weighty topics here, but November does make me pause to reflect on eternity and the hereafter. Not only do we begin the month with the feast of All Saints - a joyful celebration - but we (as Catholics) spend All Souls' Day and the entire month remembering the souls still awaiting their reward.

Lately, I have heard of the passing of several acquaintances, including Mr. Berquist, one of the founders of my Alma Mater. And this is also a time that I commemorate the pregnancy or infant losses of some dear mommy friends... always a hard reality to understand. Combine these with nature's movement toward cold and darkness, well - it's easy to ponder eternal realities!

Interestingly, it's also a time when the hint of celebrations soon to come bring some excitement and anticipation to the gray days. In fact, the very season we anticipate promises the antidote to death - death and sin give way to Light and Life! Recently, I read a passage in a booklet that captures the hope that Christians have:


"Death is now a supernatural event, a highway to Heaven. For Christ has given death new meaning... 'Thou hast made death glorious and triumphant, for through its portals we enter into the presence of the living God.' "


It's sometimes difficult for me not to let the material world and its present sorrows weigh on me. I internalize the troubles of others easily - and with the access to the world enabled by the internet - well, there are many, many sorrows. We need to feed our souls with hope and joy! Scripture reading is second to none for keeping us grounded in the eternal. There is a wealth of other reading available to encourage our hearts on this journey. One book I read a few years ago was a logical study of heaven - immensely captivating and one I would recommend: A Travel Guide To Heaven.

While pondering many endings at this time of year, how blessed we are to have the the comforts offered by our Faith - a new Church year beginning soon with the hopeful seasons of Advent and Christmas, the consolation of the communion of saints united in praising God in heaven and on earth, and the expectation of our bodily resurrection on the last day. Like the natural world around us, we rest in the winter of our existence, knowing that the coming of springtime is only a matter of time.

Read more about the Catholic belief in the resurrection of the body at the Knights of Columbus website here. Scroll down to Lesson 9.

(photo credit)