God is infinitely more than I could ever be.
I have been thinking about choices. It is one thing to think that I will be able to make the right choice in each moment of my life and quite another altogether to factor in emotion and fatigue and errors of judgment (or basically any other errors).
When I think of all the decisions that I shall have to make during the course of my life, I shudder to think that there are in fact so many opportunities to get things wrong.
Let me think for example about my children. I have been called to be a parent to my children. It is my responsibility to teach them the difference between right and wrong. And I am called to do this thing while I am tired and distracted and scared and worried and upset about things that are completely outside of my control. And I then I need to factor in my own laziness and weakness, and the flaws in my own character that contribute to every single choice I make as a parent.
I look at my children and I bear the responsibility of knowing that the choices that I make in relation to feeding them and clothing them and teaching them and educating them and disciplining them will be choices that I bear the consequences of. I also look at them knowing that their souls are as precious to God as my own, and though I have a burning desire to see them redeemed – praying for their redemption more than I pray for my own – God’s desire for them is greater…
Pope Saint John Paul II said, “We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life’. We find ourselves not only faced with but necessarily in the midst of this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.”
There he was speaking of abortion.
But this dramatic clash could apply to any choice that a soul is required to make. It could apply to the choices that I make in relation to my husband, and those in relation to my children. It could apply to my choices about my mood or my grief or my disappointment or any other thing.
And I have been thinking about that today, because it occurs to me that God is infinitely more than I could ever be. And in knowing that I know that God is able to look after everything. And that means that all I need to do is to try my best. If I can try my best, then I am doing what is necessary to allow God to work all things for the Good.
And knowing that today I feel braver – than I have ever felt – about the choices that I am trying to make…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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