It is in times of pain, fear, and chaos, that God can seem far away “My tender care is ever around My children. But they don’t see it. They look upon all the happy incidents in their lives as only natural and are inclined to attribute them to chance. Yet a word of happy thanks would bring Me such joy that My joy would redound to them in new gifts. Bossis, Gabrielle. He and I (Kindle Locations 4206-4208). Pauline Books and Media. Kindle Edition. When bad events enter our lives, it can be a true shock. It is easy to think of tragedies happening to others, but when it happens to us, we can often be overwhelmed with astonishment. It is quite a wake-up call to the reality of how fragile life is, all life. I will be having one cataract removed from my left eye. As the doctor was talking to me, she said: “of course, there are problems that can arise. Death, loss of vision, and severe infection”. Then she said, of course, we can die at any time, get sick, or have an accident. Then she smiled and finished: Problems are infrequent”. I thanked her and made arrangements for the procedure. No one can live as long as I have and be naïve about how fragile life is, yet to think of my own death is almost impossible. I guess it is a form of denial that helps me live with percentages about my life span. People will tell me all the time that they are not afraid of death. While I do not say anything, I do not believe them. We are given an instinct to survive because this life is so difficult we need to have a dose of fear of death to keep us here. It is in times of pain, fear, and chaos, that God can seem far away. I believe one reason for this is that we can often have naïve and childish ideas about God. The closer God gets, the further away he seems because our ideas are inadequate. Also, our emotional states are not stable, and not good indicators of the presence of the Lord in our lives. All we need do is look into Christ Jesus's life and see how things went for Him. His love was total, He lived what he taught, and love does bring about its own form of suffering. He leads us through this world and asks us to follow Him growing in faith and love. We are not pampered that is something we all know but can be forgotten when life, just life, happens to us. The tenderness of God never leaves us, we are all loved, and we are on a journey. During that journey, God embraces all of us seeking to draw us deeper into the freedom that only Infinite love can give to us. In the end, when we choose to follow the Lord and to allow his grace and love to heal us, or to freely choose to go our own way, it is based on our ‘little’ choices in life. To say yes or no to grace happens all the time. We are all drawn to say “YES”. To be thankful is to allow the eyes of our souls to see deeper into the mystery of all of our lives. To pray is to take deeper root into this reality, and the fruit of such a life is to have a heart like that of Jesus Christ and to have the Mind of Christ.-Br.MD
