Translating a World on the Edge

Looking for answers to your problems? Well guess What? We don’t always have to be in control. We don’t always have to know the answer to every problem. We don’t always have to be the leader. What a relief it is to allow someone else to lead–someone we TRUST– and then, with confidence, follow them to the greatest surprises.

The most secure place to put our trust is in God. And when we trust in Him, He will surprise us. When we let go, like a small child standing on the pool’s edge, and jump into our Father’s arms; he will not only catch us, he will teach us to swim.

God’s surprises may come as answers to a worry we have, and given to us through another person. The person may be someone, who in our narrow-mindedness, we may have judged too severely by our first impression (how they dress, how attractive they are, how they speak, smell, or walk.) We see only someone who is different from our image of what we think a person should be. And sometimes, we pompously see someone who’s ‘in our way.’ And so, we circumvent them, and never get to know the answer or surprise God had in mind to give us through them.

If we see only ourselves as worthy enough to be in control. If we try to do everything on our own. If we don’t accept God’s presence in people at all, then how can we take advantage of the grace He offers when we need it most? And we will surely need it!

In our life journey, the innocence we were born with will leave us. We will be broken in some way. There may have already been a time in your life when everything changed and life seemed in ruins. Of course, none of us wish for brokenness, but all of us will face suffering. What sort of action will we take when that happens? We might moan and groan about the trouble that has befallen us. We might strike out at others. We might wound ourselves up, like a tight ball of yarn, wishing the world would go away and leave us wadded up in our misery.

But if we recognize God’s grace and allow it to unwind inside us, our inner sight will change. We will make an attempt to understand how much God loves us, and when we understand that, we will see things differently. We will no longer be broken. We will be ‘put together’ and able to surrender our lives to Him. And follow Him.

And never should we forget that we may be the answer to what another human being needs. Seeing another’s divinity and honoring it is a sure way to express our own. We are, all of us, intended to be God’s expression of love in this world.

Our earthly lives are like jars of clay. They can be beautiful but they are fragile and easily shattered, many times by our own sins. And of course, our lives do not last forever. The genuine treasure of this life is that it continues beyond the container of our bodies. It is not temporary, but eternal.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.–Corinthians 4:17-18

In fairytales, each character is usually either good or evil. A dark, menacing character or a bright hero. We usually chose the good character.

But we don’t live in a fairytale. We live in a real world with real people. And real people are not completely good, or completely evil. People are more complicated, with many hues that come genetically or from our environments. But each hue does bend us toward either what is good or what is not good. Each of us has the ability to decide between the two. And we do it numerous times in any given day.

But do we realize that each time we decide on one way or the other, we are putting our personal humanity in that decision? We are either lifting ourselves higher, or lowering ourselves. We are becoming closer to attaining our highest purpose, or further away from it. Life does not make our choices easy. Many not-so-good situations reach out to pull us toward evil. And every day of our lives we will battle them.

We can be heroes in the battle by utilizing the good gifts we have been given to fight with. And what are those good gifts? Well, they are God-given and we all have them within us, but the choice to use them is ours. They are prudence, justice, temperance, courage, faith, hope, and charity. When we choose any one of them, we are being faithful to the God who loves us.

However, we often selfishly give in to the opposite of those gifts: greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, or sloth. We forget who made us and why we were made. We were CHOSEN by God. He did not have to create a particular you and me. Because He did create us, we have a purpose in being here on earth.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.–Jeremiah 1:5

Take a look at the first four questions from the Baltimore Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is an old catechism, but many churches have brought it back, searching for clearer answers.

1. Who made us?

God made us.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. (Genesis 1:1)

2. Who is God?

God is the Supreme Being, infinitely perfect, who made all things and keeps them in existence.

In him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

3. Why did God make us?

God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.

Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him. (I Corinthians 2:9)

4. What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?

To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world.

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth; where the rust and moth consume and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. (Matthew 6:19-20)

It is by holding to, and using, the weapons of virtue that we can become the person our Father God meant us to be when He chose to create us.