I was on team for a Catholic women’s retreat last weekend, and it was a marvelous experience. I’m still mulling over… as are many of the rest of us who were there… a fellow team member’s comment in her talk that sometimes we, like trees, can only stand firm when life tries to bend or even break us.
It’s so easy to complain to God and the world in general about some of the winds that buffet us… the loss of a family member. The end of a romance. Challenges at work. Health issues. It’s hard to see why a loving God would allow such trauma into the lives of his children.
No one except God knows the answer to that. As they say, it’s above our pay grade. But when we trust in God if not in ourselves that all will eventually be well, we stand firm. When we stop complaining and focus on the graces that remain, we stand firm. When we stop demanding explanations and start accepting, we stand firm. Then and only then will we be open to what the Lord can do.
