“One step forward, two steps backward…”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “One step forward, two steps backward…”?
When I am in the midst of changing anything or working with anything, I always think of that phrase. You see, with any change there is uncertainty, and with uncertainty there are mistakes and with mistakes there is discomfort and with discomfort, it can often feel that though you have moved forward a pace, you have moved backwards two…
It can feel like the whole exercise is a waste of time and effort and that the situation is hopeless… And when that happens – when that sense of hopelessness descends – that is exactly when I need the Grace to continue on.
You see, when Christ was being Crucified – as He had been born to do – it did not look wonderful and it did not look like God’s Will. Instead, it looked like the jealous corruption of the political and religious leaders of the day. Instead, it looked like a terrible terrible injustice. It looked like the desertion of friends and the suffering of a mother. In fact, if such in injustice were repeated today in even its most minute detail, there would be a cry throughout the world that would be so great that the world itself would not understand…
And I have been thinking about that today… Because “God in his providence is continuously leading us forward” (Saint Josemaria).
It is indeed, the greatest of all temptations to believe that I am not making progress. It is the most terrible of sins to trust that my view of the world and my progress in it somehow reflects the actual situation in the world itself. You see, no matter what I actually think of myself or how much importance I place in myself, the things that will happen in this world are the things that God allows.
God allowed God the Son to suffer and die on the Cross for my sins. God allows me to live in my home with the family that I have. And God will grant me the successes that He so choses and will allow me the failures as well.
And those things – those successes and those failures as well – they mean nothing. They contribute nothing to eternity unless God so choses.
Now, does that mean that I make no effort in this lifetime? Of course not. That would be an affront to God and a misuse of the talents that He has bestowed on me.
But what it does mean is that I can relax and take it easy when I have success and I can relax and take it easy when I have failure. My job is not to determine the outcome. My job is the task at hand.
If the task is at hand then I shall work towards it and it will present itself to me. If the task is not at hand then I shall not. And if I succeed in my task, then that is GOD’S Will and GOD’S success. And If I fail then God has allowed it because He does not want that success for me right now.
And I shall remember that today, when I think of the phrase, “One step forward, two steps backward…”
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments