Devotion for today: His Will Be Done In Me and Through Me

While God's ways are not our ways and God's timing is not our timing, he does have a plan. He is intimately concerned about the details of our lives. (The Bible's Best Love Stories
Allan F. Wright, Franciscan Media Books)

Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, “declares the Lord.
Isaiah 41:13:  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you: Do not fear; I will help you.

Isaiah 49:16:  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

Psalm 23:1: The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall lack.

John 14:16:  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—

John 14:18:  

I apologize for not keeping up with my blog, but my saga of dental problems continues. I have had an abscess which started in my sinuses and seeped into my upper gum and into my teeth. It started as a simple sinus infection two months ago and has led to two root canals and the placement of a drain in my mouth to try to clear this infection out, so far with minimal success. I face two or three more root canals and more oral surgery to clear this up. It is painful, physically draining and even, I dare say, a bit depressive. I constantly feel sick to my stomach as the infection drains into it, and my energy level is very low.

Why do I share this with you? I share it because I think many of us face times in our lives when we just cannot figure God out. He gives us opportunities to serve Him and the knowledge and energy to do so, and then afflicts us with a situation that takes us right out of service. Sometimes we find ourselves at the top of our game, using our gifts and talents to the best of our abilities and finding great results in our efforts, only to be knocked right out of the game. We pray for guidance, follow good offers for service or work, and then find that we cannot do them because we are afflicted. It doesn’t make any sense.

Truthfully, it doesn’t make any human sense. No one stuck in continual pain, constant sickness and complicated issues can figure out why God would prefer this to active, engaged service. In the mystery of suffering, it is very easy and understandable to feel that although we are willing to carry our crosses as Jesus states, we cannot really find a very good reason for doing this instead of productive, loving work.

The answer, of course, is the mystery. As the good nuns always told us, “Always offer it up.” There is an amazing quality to our suffering when we use it in that way. Offer it up. Why? Is it because Jesus’ suffering wasn’t enough? He needs our suffering to complete the work of redemption? St. Paul says, (Col 1:24): "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His Body, that is, the Church." St. Paul says he rejoices in his sufferings. That is hard to do, but St. Paul tells us that he can do it is because he knows that it is the only way to join in the co-redemptive work of saving souls with Christ. Yes, Jesus saved us on the cross, but the work of salvation is a work He asks us to share with Him, as it is continual and includes us, his beloved. People seeing our suffering and participating in it are brought to the Cross with us, see Christ suffering through us, and find compassion and love and mercy welling up in them in return. He tells St. Faustina in Diary entry 67: "You are not living for yourself but for souls, and other souls will profit from your sufferings. Your prolonged suffering will give them light and strength to accept my will."

In entry 324 He says to her: "There is but one price at which souls are bought, and that is suffering united to My suffering on the cross. Pure love understands these words; carnal love will never understand them." 

And she writes in entry 482: "My sacrifice is nothing in itself, but when I join it to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it becomes all powerful." 

Jesus needs us as much in this line of service as He does as active workers in the fields of harvest. We will be meeting people we normally would not meet as we wait for treatments and obtain care. In our weakness we reach out to people to help us and therefore find ways to exercise missions of mercy. Sometimes it is humiliating and embarrassing to have to ask for, or even to have to need, help. But our weakness is the very thing that just might make another person strong. We may become the means to their salvation. Maybe what John the Baptist said actually applies to us: “I must decrease so that He will increase” and maybe our shell of self is the very vessel God fills with His grace in order to bring souls to Him.

We have no idea why God is asking us to suffer. Is it in preparation for something that will happen to us in the future? Is it for our own salvation?  Will we become stronger, more faithful, and more merciful? Probably it is all of these. If nothing else comes of it, we will be stripped of our pride as we submit to procedures we didn’t know existed. And that is always a good thing!

In a world that so values excellence and performance, it doesn’t make much sense to believe that we the weak and suffering can be so valuable to the plan of God, but we are. Jesus did not follow the ways of the world in which He entered. He did not seek to hold the top temple position nor did He seek to gain the admiration of His peers. He came to teach, to heal, to suffer and to die. Well, we are part of His life to the fullest when we stop placing our lives above His and simply join it to His.

This is so hard. We cannot endure our pain and suffering alone. We need the prayers and support of others. Pray for me, and I will pray for you.