By KRISTINE SCHROEDER
LESSONS LEARNED
My friend Diane recently sent me a reflection from Tim Gray that is posted on formed.org. He was speaking about how God, from the beginning of our lives, has a plan for each of us. Call it Plan A. However, we humans, having our own free will and hubris, frequently meander from the best path. Gray speculates that God then relinquishes his initial idea and reconfigures, hoping eventually that we arrive at His ultimate destination for us: heaven.
It occurred to me that Ford’s notion suggests that God works in much the same way as a GPS. Heading home from a weekend trip, Jim and I decided to take a more scenic (and shorter) route than the one Sylvia (Jim’s moniker for our virtual guide) had in mind. When we crossed I-70 (Sylvia’s best idea) and continued down SR 231, she immediately took action.
Within seconds, she calmly redirected us to make a left, then a U-turn and return to the original route. We didn’t. She paused momentarily undeterred, made that da da da dum sound (think high pitched) and remained silent until she spotted a second opportunity to right our wrong. When we ignored her again, she accepted our decision saying, “Okay, continue down 231 for 70 miles.” She never once lost her virtual cool.
God treats us similarly. He attempts through many signs to direct us back to His best idea; but realizing we are headstrong for a different way, He implements Plan B, C or D. I hope there are still some remaining letters before my time is up!
Our drifting from God’s original plan is often accompanied by self-induced heartache or disorientation. The wheels spin, but we make no progress. Yet, God knew from the beginning that we would ignore his initial directive. Due to our fallible nature, we make wrong turns, lose time and worst of all, arrive at dead ends. Our hands thrown up in frustration or despair, we wonder how we arrived in such a quagmire. But, more importantly, how do we recover from the problem we created?
In these difficult moments, our faith is crucial. We must understand that we cannot fix this mess alone, but we can in faith concede that no problem is too difficult for God. As our “spiritual GPS,” He waits silently for us until we acknowledge through prayer and petition His omnipotence. “God, I need your help! I am lost. Please tell me what to do.”
Next comes the difficult component of our journey. Now, we must wait patiently (this is vital) for His guidance, listen to His word, and trust in His mercy and love.
The great saints’ journeys are full of stories of errors in judgement. Study the lives of St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi or St.Teresa Benedicta of the Cross to mention a few. They too followed a path of hedonism and materialism for a time. St. Augustine had a child out of wedlock; St. Francis partied with friends, spending his father’s money recklessly; and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross denounced even God’s existence. However, when they finally recognized the empty promises of the secular world, they repented, shed their worldly aspirations and created valuable legacies for future generations.
It is doubtful that most of us will begin a new religious order or become a beloved bishop. That matters not. Rather, it is important that we are daily Christian models for our families, our friends and our community. That requires a daily examination of our own lives. By our example, do we speak (or fail to speak) the importance of the Gospel? We have children, grandchildren and friends who learn their ways from ours. My grandparents’ noontime rosary and an unwavering commitment to Sunday mass made an indelible impression on my young life.
God’s precepts may at first seem confining, but in reality are actually liberating. Following Him frees us to be the person God intended us to be. As Matthew Kelley aptly states, “The very best version of ourselves.” However, He also understood that all our missteps, detours and dead ends ultimately made us the blessed child He knew we would be. God never loses confidence in us (even when our own confidence in Him wanes) and better yet He never once ceases to love us. Praise God from whom all blessings (and detours) flow (even the unplanned ones).