Called to joy 

Even though I'm working 60-hour weeks, may possibly be coming down with a cold, haven't gotten out to exercise in goodness knows how long (:::cringe:::), am pained by ongoing evils in the world, and am dealing with a variety of volunteer-activity-headaches, I am joyful.

I know it's obvious to many, but it was only in recent months that I fully grasped that we can actively choose to be joyful, no matter what our circumstances and situations may be. Oh, I understood intellectually that while we can't control what goes on, we can control our reactions to it, but it's another thing to live that understanding.

This "ah-ha!" moment was triggered recently while reading the "Kingdom of Heaven" parables in Matthew's Gospel and the accompanying Navarre commentary. In thinking 'pon it all, I realized we have such a blessing in being part of the Kingdom and that really, nothing can stop it. Nothing.

And then on top of that surety ("But wait, there's more!"), we're given such an abundance of graces! As the miracles of the loaves and fish demonstrate, God always gives us more than what we need; the whole superabundance of grace thing. How wonderful that not only does God meet our needs, but does so in such a lavish way!

We just need to work with Him -- we bring Him our measly loaves and fish, then He takes and multiplies them beyond anything we ever could've imagined. Whatever we bring Him, He can take it and say, "Yeah, I can work with this." (Side note: I can't keep myself from picturing God here as a balloon artist who takes a bunch of disparate, unremarkable balloons, fiddles around for a bit, and then presto! Massively Cool balloon animal.)

So, I finally Get It that as Gospel people, we're called to joy. And I'm doin' my best to answer that call, no matter what.

Labels: reflections

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posted by Lisa, ofs | Permalink