May 28, 2018

Weekly Reflection – Where is God in all this?

Have you ever asked, “Where is God in all this?” Life has its seasons.  For me, this is a season of transition and turmoil.  You see, my family is in the process of moving from East Texas to where two of our children are, some 300 KM away.

We have been feverishly searching for a new home in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston while at the same time overseeing an army of painters and contractors who are preparing our Tyler house so it can be put up for sale.  In the midst of this, my 96-year-old mother-in-law called to say her bedpost has cracked and she is afraid the bed will collapse.  Now I am gluing her bedpost back together!  It has been a season of chaos.

Chaos? Oh, I teach about that in a workshop we sometimes present.  The model shows the transition from an “old normal” to a “new normal” with chaos in between, from what was to what is to what can be.  Ah, that is where we are!  We are at the chaos stage, albeit a somewhat controlled chaos. But then I ask myself, “Where is God in all this?” Is this His plan, or is it just mine?

Have you noticed how people often pray by asking God to help them with the plans that they have undertaken?  Help me to succeed in my studies.  Help us in our plan to do your work. God, thank you for making my life turn out the way I wanted it to be.

We often pray such prayers.  But I wonder.  Should we not more appropriately be praying for God to give us a vision of and strength to accomplish HIS plans?  That is what it is really all about, HIS plans, not mine.  Benedict of Nursia wrote, “Indeed, nothing is to be preferred to the work of God.” So, when life enters a time of turmoil and transition, I find myself asking where God is in all this.  Is this His Plan, or is it only mine?

May God help us to recognize His plans and may we respond accordingly.

Blessings and peace,

Chaplain Allen
chaplain@nationsu.edu
chaplainscorner.org

Read the reflection, Into the Mirror Dimly