You see, once it becomes clear that every NO is just God’s way of providing me with a different YES, then every attempt I make at a thing just becomes another interaction with God Himself.
The other day a person who is very dear to me told me about another attempt she was making to progress in her life in a certain direction. She felt a very strong calling to a particular type of life and a particular type of work on this Earth and though she had spent many years asking for that to come into her life, she found herself completely unable to move into that direction.
She had tried asking and moving her life around the goal more than once and more than once she was rejected – keenly and deliberately and directly. More than once she was told NO. And it was not just a little no, like come back again and try again later. It was an adamant NO. It was a no under any circumstances at all.
And this dear friend of mine had lived with hearing that NO for many years. And then, something happened, and she had hope that her no could be transformed into a yes…
And when that happened, she was overcome with joy at the mere prospect of a possible YES, or even of a maybe.
And I have been thinking about her faith.
There have been times in my own life when I have turned to God and asked Him to direct my course. I have had to ask Him to lead me to where I needed to go. And they way He does this is that He answers NO sometimes. Sometimes when I think that He is calling me to move in one direction, instead there are barriers, and it is impossible and despite all foy m best efforts that does not work out. And I cry a few little tears of self-pity and then take a breath and stand back up and try to feel my way along the wall for the opening.
And I have been thinking about that today. You see, once it becomes clear that every NO is just God’s way of providing me with a different YES, then every attempt I make at a thing just becomes another interaction with God Himself.
In the past when I thought of God, I really wanted to think of Him as a sort of vending machine – dishing out treats for me on demand. But as I grow in my faith – through the Power of the Holy Spirit and no power or merit of my own – I have come to realise that EVERYTHING is God. Everything is an opportunity to be with Him. And just like a young lover meeting their loved one for the first time, it is my life’s work to reach out to my Beloved.
And I can do this through my attempts at what I think He wants for me. Because it is only through those attempts that I am every going to be able to come close to my Beloved…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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