Well, I should probably be going to bed, and the fact that I am posting tonight, while having a cold, needing sleep, and sharing on a retreat tomorrow is proof of how persuasive media can be today! If you, reader, are reading this when you should be doing something else, read this, and then go do something else! Do not check Facebook. Do not check your email. Do not collect 200 dollars.
But really, Level 2. How about this: The "cost of discipleship" (Dietrich Bonehoeffer) is also the cost of decisiveness. While chatting with a friend tonight, we were both observing how sad we are to be parting ways after becoming close friends. But this person feels called to move somewhere else, and I feel called to stay where I am. This is the cost of decisiveness, of not keeping one's options open.
In a talk I recently heard, I was told that there were four things which Mary the Mother of God did not do when the Angel Gabriel came to her, asking her to be the Mother of Jesus:
1. She did not negotiate
2. She did not keep her options open
3. She did not have an "exit" strategy
4. She did not ask for a contract
These four points are taken from the book Letters to a Young Catholic by George Weigel, and I find them extremely challenging, convicting, and provocative. I have wondered recently whether Jesus or Mary knew, really knew, in advance the exact nature of the suffering they would endure throughout their human lifetimes. The Apostles certainly did not when they gave their "Yes's" to their Teacher. So many of God's faithful we see in Scripture saying "Yes" without knowing exactly what they are saying "Yes" to. But it's not about, of course, what they're saying "Yes" to as much as it is to Whom they are saying "Yes."
Sometimes, I like to think that I have a fairly accurate notion of the challenge coming toward me. But lately, I've experienced "hidden" facets of the crosses the Lord has sent to me. Just when I think I'm done with Cross X ("X" being "ex" and not "ten"), He shows me that there is still more to be learned from carrying the Cross. Just when I say, "Whew, Lord! I've 'run the race' and now I'm ready to receive the break you have for me" He shows me that I'm not done running, that I can trust He has more grace for me as I continue running.
Tonight, my friend said that while they were sad to be moving away, they were also at peace and weren't sad because they were answering God's call. This is the mystery: we find our home in Him not in people, places, or things. Community is the means through which He chooses to love us. He doesn't have to use you, me, a community, a new job, a new car, etc. to show His love for us. But He chooses to love us with creativity and without reserve, the most creative and profound way being to send us His Very Son.
May God bless you, reader, with peace and joy in this Easter season!
