I was writing my introduction to our fourth week of March Meditations and realized that these words should be where I can "linger longer."
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As I linger with thoughts of what is happening in us and around us, what is changing moment by moment, I cannot help but pray for those who have yet to feel the need to be assured by One beyond themselves.
God’s presence is always with us but being assured of His presence within us is a gift that some have yet to choose.
God gives us the choice.
It’s up to us to say, “yes” to our Lord and, by faith, trust in God’s forever presence working in and through us.
This is a period of time that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Stories will go down in history, along with the stories regarding the 1918 Spanish flu . . . which was followed by the depression . . . which was followed by World War II. Survivors became resilient, creative, able to live on nearly nothing and find ways to give thanks to God.
We have lived through wars and disasters but nothing that would include the entire population of the United States and the World.
At least two generations are totally unprepared to deal with this economically, emotionally and spiritually.
Is God getting our attention?
Hope so.
Did God cause this . . . NOT.
God does not ‘cause’ evil but evil surrounds us.
God does not ‘cause’ disaster but disaster happens when we least expect it.
God does not want His creation to suffer and die needlessly but, because God does not stop us from being human, because He does not make choices for us, life happens.
We have no right to second-guess God’s plan for us but God does have one plan.
He wants all of us to turn to him and give our anxiety to Him and trust in Him. God sent us His only begotten Son to be with us through the power of the Holy Spirit, Who guides us if we take time to listen . . . and follow.
Yet, even those who listen hard as they wait upon the
No matter how much we ‘work’ at prayer and ‘work’ at being close to our Lord, life happens.
No matter how we learn to ‘be’, no matter how much we trust, life happens.
No matter the depth of understanding we have of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, life happens.
No matter how hard we try to avoid the swirl of anxiety, the swirl of germs, the swirl of whatever besieges us, life happens.
Our Lord only wants our attention, all of our love, our dying-to-self trust, our full focus on Him.
He wants us in His forever kingdom, eternally.
God wants us to submit to Him all that swirls within us and all that absorbs our attention around us as we walk on this earth.
This COVID-19 is not of God’s doing but God can use this episode in our lives to draw us nearer to Him.
The old song, thought of as Saint Patrick’s song, is a great reminder that our Lord is with us, girding us, encouraging us, giving us strength to remain focused on Him.
Here are a few words:
“Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me.”
Jesus is with us. Through all of this, the power of the Holy Spirit, called into us at baptism, is girding us, drawing us into our Lord’s loving embrace. Christ is holding us tight, helping us remain focused on him as anxiety swirls around us.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
