Love has a hem to her garment that reaches the very dust.
It sweeps the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must. – Mother Teresa
Have you ever noticed when you are totally overwhelmed with a set of challenges (one for each finger I say), life has an uncanny way of dealing just a few more major blows– all at once? Here you are standing tall as trees, trying to be strong, and be responsible and systematically solve the issues? This feels like a theme for me these days in life.
I recently bought a post card from the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum that sits in front of my kitchen window. It has NO PICURES, just five simple words to remind me of today’s modus operandi:
Failure is not an option.
It’s the famous line uttered in the Apollo 13 mission and subsequent movie. It’s a verbal and visionary reminder to keep trying, to keep going…at all costs, beyond energy, beyond strength, above all: beyond no, and I can’t and I don’t know and I’m tired.
You must, must, must find a way, in order to complete the mission and come home safely.
The catch is this; life does not always play out like a great movie or space mission. In fact, as clever as those amazing astronauts were, was there something more than mere intelligence at work? After all, who gives us our amazing minds?
Perhaps there is a force at work bigger than the size of the circumstance. Smarter than the smartest mind in the room. Stronger than the strongest person or fire or storm that threatens.
Yes, we stand tall as trees, but God fells us to our rightful position sometimes: our knees.
We’re not as big, or smart, or as important as we think we are. We are not responsible for the resolution of everything! That’s such a hard, hard lesson for me. I just naturally associate doing nothing with being lazy. I keep forgetting that letting go, actually does mean let God. Nothing in the world feels harder than surrender. After all, in battle, isn’t surrender essentially the same as defeat?
In battle, yes. In matters of faith, surrender is true freedom. Why? Because that’s when the soft winds of grace can blow in. What is this grace exactly?
It’s unmerited favor. It’s granted when you don’t deserve it, perhaps because you don’t deserve it. Or perhaps because you do. It’s because despite your failure of choices or abilities, you deserve it, simply because you are loved. It’s because despite all this which is not of your own making is not happening unnoticed by God. You are loved. And the solution will arrive right on time. But not on your time, on God’s.
I think of grace as perseverance strapped safely in by faith. It’s the ability to step out and endure before the answers arrive.
What is “that thing” you so desperately need right now to solve your most pressing problems? More money? More time? More wisdom (something you hadn’t considered before)? More energy? More love?
Probably “that thing” is the ONE THING you just can’t do by yourself, no matter how hard you try.
Solution? Stop trying already. Hear me right. You still have to get out of bed each day, get up and do the best that you can. Work as hard as you can, but work at it as if you are confidently expecting God to pull through for you.
Maybe muster up a tiny bit of joy as you are working. Prayers of gratitude for what God has blessed you with will strengthen you further. What do you already have working for you? A family who loves you? (Think how many people in the world don’t have this!) A body still capable of working, even though it tires? A mind which, though sometimes filled with doubt, can still decide, change, adapt to, and embrace new situations and challenges? Basic needs such as a food, shelter, clothing? I hope you see the gift of grace you have already obtained here.
If you have time, I hope you’ll watch the video. Mother Teresa had it right all along. God designed us in this simple yet unique way.
To love, and to be loved.
That’s it. To love. You struggle, yes. But look beyond you, clearly there are harder struggles that you have not been called to endure. That’s not good luck; that’s grace. And yet there is a lesson here:
Amidst the chaos, the unknown outcomes of pressing problems, and being pressed for time all around, is there a way to extend grace to someone else? Who nearest to your center of gravity simply needs to be loved?
Failure may feel as if it’s not an option for the challenges we face. But grace is. And grace is the one that will help us complete our mission and carry us safely home.
More Wisdom from Mother Teresa:
We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.
A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.
u2areloved 