Everything
“There is no such thing as failure if you act with a right intention, wanting to fulfill God’s will and counting always on His grace and your own nothingness.” (Saint Josemaria, “Christ is passing by”, at 76).
I am a very competitive person. I always like to win.
Through God’s good favour, I am very often able to win and come out of a situation on top.
Because I am very suited to winning, I do not like to lose and I can usually structure things so that I am able to secure an advantageous outcome. This is not to say that I am perfect or that I do not fail. I do indeed fail and fail very badly sometimes. And yet, I find myself longing for different structures to try to get things organised in such a way that I can secure a favourable outcome more often than not.
I have been thinking of that today as I have been approaching my work in the every day…
You see, if a person is only suited to winning then they do not learn very necessary skills. If I can rely on my own ability to succeed, what need have I to petition my Beloved? Do I lean on Him as He wishes if I spend my days patting myself on the back for my own good will and good natured behaviour?
Often I am unable to progress to the next stage and instead, in feeling that I have won I have actually lost. Perhaps at times, winning really looks like a loss and losing is actually a win? Perhaps it is true that everything is not as it seems and that both victory and defeat are valuable in a life to be well lived?
Maybe it is the bad times that teach me to be good and the good times that disguise the need to grow? Perhaps those dark days when I could barely manage to get myself going, were the days where I was unable to see that there was any light in my life, perhaps these were the days when God moved the most in me?
The rock is only moulded the movement of the waves, after all. The rock does not feel the waves moving and thinks to itself, how pleasant that really is. Instead, the rock feels the slow erosion of its form by the relentless pressure of the water. But over time, the water can make the rock into something altogether new…
And I have been thinking about that today…
Saint Josemaria advises, in “The Forge”, at 199, “If you are faithful you will be able to count yourself a conqueror. Even though you may lose some battles in your life, you will not know defeat. You can be sure that there is no such thing as failure if you act with purity of intention and with a desire to fulfill the Will of God. And then, whether you win or lose, you will always triumph in the end, because you will have carried out your work with Love.”
And I have been thinking about that today, because it seems to me that “There is no such thing as failure if you act with a right intention, wanting to fulfill God’s will and counting always on His grace and your own nothingness.” (Saint Josemaria, “Christ is passing by”, at 76).
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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