Life gets complicated - but I have God!

Life is complicated sometimes.*

I've found that my attitude toward problems is very important. If I am able to remember, through my very human emotions and feelings, that God is my strength, I can proceed along the lines of something like this:

"I know I need more hours in the day than I have this week. It would help if I had [fill in the blank] but, for now, I don't. I do know that I will get through this week and, somehow, everything will be okay. If I do the footwork, God will be there , as always, to help pull me through."

By reminding myself that it isn't necessary to have whatever *I* think I need, I get out of acting out of a sense of "not having enough " (whether it's an assistive device, a pair of hands to supplement my paralyzed ones or whatever) and into a positive attitude of "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" - and I then proceed to try my best.

I've seen story after story in the Bible where folks are facing impossible odds. Yet the outcome depends more on their faith than anything else.

Surely this can work with the problems I face. There are no lions in my den and no seas to part. (I do have cats and occasional flooding however).

By acknowledging the everyday gifts that God puts in my life through others, I can remain positive, no matter what, as long as I continue to stay in the right frame of mind. For example last week I had a rough schedule at work and was returning from a trip, which made me tired. Moreover, there was construction work going on where I worked the week before, so I fell further behind. I felt as if I would never get everything done.

Here's what I did: I took it day by day and did my very best.

Here's what God did:
*my aide was kind enough to bring me over plates of food almost every day which helped me enormously
*I found materials that I needed quickly to help me get the work done faster and more efficiently
*I had two exceptionally good days of health (God-given) which extended my work hours

You've probably guessed by now- everything got done. Believe me, it looked impossible at the time. Do I believe I did it alone?

No way.

I see the lesson in all of this : that it is more important that I hone my faith as a Catholic than have it easy. I leave that in God's hands too, because I admit I don't always know what's best for me. Years from now, whether I had to struggle to get things done won't be as important as the state of my soul.

It's a matter of separating out what I want now from the bigger picture of what is needed for my spiritual growth.




*[this is a joke version of a video game controller - don't even try to figure it out!]