“Only if you allow, and seek, His presence and captaincy, will you be safe from the storms and setbacks of life. Place everything in God’s hands.” (Saint Josemaria, “Friends of God”, 21).
I have been reflecting on what it means to work towards an end-goal.
When I have reflected on my goals – which is just another way of describing my dreams or hopes or aspirations – I have, in the past, often focused on what tools I needed to achieve those goals. I have worried about the past and how to get working and where to get the information from and how to make things sensible. And at the same time, I have worried about where I am going to be getting the tools from.
In other words, instead of worrying about the end, I have fixated on the means.
And I have been thinking about that today, because it occurs to me today that this is the OPPOSITE of the Blessed Virgin. You see, the Blessed Virgin did not worry about the means. She was told that She would – as a VIRGIN – conceive and give birth to the Messiah. And she responded with a small question to clarify what needed to be done on her part. She asked how this could be since she had known no man. And she asked this to understand whether or not she needed to have intercourse with a human man to make this happen. Once she understood what was required of her, she no longer worried about he means and focused only on the end…
She was – and still is – the most loyal and faithful of all the disciples, of all the souls ever created. Because she no longer worried about the means and focused only on the end…
Saint Josemaria wrote, in “The Forge” at 984, “As well as having given you abundant and effective grace, the Lord has given you a brain, a pair of hands and intellectual powers so that your talents may yield fruit. God wants to work miracles all the time - to raise the dead, make the deaf hear, restore sight to the blind, enable the lame to walk... - through your sanctified professional work, which you will have turned into a holocaust that is both pleasing to God and useful to souls.”
And I have been reflecting on that idea today. That idea that God will talk care of what needs taking care of and all we have to do is say YES to God. All I am called to do is say YES to the plan that God has which will eventuate in the END that God has planned.
I am not required to think anything else or feel anything else or worry about anything else. All I need to do is get in the BOAT…
“In your boat by yourself, if you try to do without the Master, you are — supernaturally speaking — making straight for shipwreck. Only if you allow, and seek, His presence and captaincy, will you be safe from the storms and setbacks of life. Place everything in God’s hands.” (Saint Josemaria, “Friends of God”, 21).
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.