That title caught my eye as I was leafing through the November 2011 edition of Restoration (published by Madonna House). The article is a homily given by one priest at Madonna House at the funeral of another priest. He speaks of the deceased as often being in “the right place for the wrong reason.” A soul so abandoned to God that he didn’t always realize how God was using him. “That’s why he showed up in so many of our lives just when we needed him to be there. Whatever he was up to—whether it was fixing a door or a chair—it often turned out that the real reason he was there was that you were there, and you needed him.” You can read the homily here.
Category: God’s providence
In another form
Ann Voskamp, in her book One Thousand Gifts, writes about how important it is for us to have God’s perspective concerning all the events in our lives: “Can it be that that which seems to oppose the will of God actually is used of Him to accomplish the will of God? That which seems evil only seems so because of perspective, the way the eyes see the shadow above the clouds, light never stops shining.” Amy Carmichael tackles this issue as well:
Mark 16.12 After that He appeared in another form.
John 16.23 And in that day you shall ask Me nothing.
“We always expect the Lord to come to us in a joy. Instead of that He sometimes appears in another form, He comes in a big disappointment.
“In the day that we see Him all will be clear. The mysteries which now perplex us will be illuminated. One day we shall see the glory to our glorious God and the good to all of us contained in the disappointment we cannot understand.
“So let us live as those who believe this to be true. Let us praise before we can see. Let us thank our Lord for trusting us to trust Him.” (Amy Carmichael)
The Unexpected
This season always seems to bring the unexpected. Obviously that was the case for Mary: to have to travel to Bethlehem so late in her pregnancy. This excerpt from a meditation by Mother Mary Francis underscores the truth that nothing is unexpected to God. May we continue to travel with Mary through the rest of our Advents. (This is a bit lengthy, but well worth reading the whole of it.)
God has a great plan also in what we call the unexpected. It isn’t unexpected to God. He planned it from all eternity. There is no happenstance in life, certainly not in the spiritual life. So often we say, “Oh, I didn’t expect that to happen!” Well, God did. We could think, “Oh, that is what caused everything to go wrong”, but actually that is what is supposed to make everything go right. There is nothing unexpected in all of creation. There is a plan in what we would call the unexpected. Wasn’t the Incarnation the most unpredictable thing that could ever have happened? God has his whole master plan for each of our lives. . . for the whole Church, and we should delight to remember that nothing should ever take us by surprise, except the wonder of God’s plan.
Our Lady was certainly not expecting the Annunciation, and the whole plan of redemption was most unexpected to humanity–the whole idea of it, that the Father’s Divine Son, himself God, should become man, should be incarnated through the agency of this young, unknown girl in a city of which someone was to say, “Can any good come out of that little place?” What was more unexpected? This was the whole plan.
God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, says, “I know well the plans I have in mind for you” (Jeremiah 29:11). We don’t, but that’s wonderful. If we trust a human being very deeply, we would accept that. If you were to say to me, “I just don’t get this at all”, I would say, “I can’t explain it to you now, but take my word for it: it’s going to turn out right if you will just do what I’m asking you.” And I would venture to say you would believe me. Can we do less for God, who is saying exactly this to us? “I know well the plans I have in mind for you, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. I don’t reveal all the details of those plans because I cannot deprive you of faith. I cannot deprive you of hope. I cannot deprive you of the glory of trusting in me. I cannot deprive you of the wonder of seeing my plan as it unfolds. I don’t want you to read the whole story and the last page, I want you to keep reading and to enjoy the wonder of what’s coming next in the way that children say, ‘And then what? And then what?'” God knows the next page, the next chapter, and even the last page. It is a plan, and all we have to do is place our lives at the service of that plan so that without presumption we can say, “Yes, the Word will be made a little less unutterable through the word of each of our lives, a little more manifest because we have placed our lives at the service of his plan.”
It is sufficient that God knows this plan. When it is hard to accept things, we should make that part of our prayer. We want to become very intimate with him as the great mystics were in very simple, humble ways, saying, “Dear God, I don’t get this at all, but I’m so glad that you do. And I know that you have a plan and I only want to be at the service of your plan.” And who of us, in her own life, has not had experience of htat? The very things that sometimes seemed so hard, so suffering, so puzzling and bewildering, were the very things out of which would come a wonder that we could never have dreamed of.
In our personal lives there is a wonderful unfolding. It is wonderful to keep going forward. Even our Lady did not know the last page. The morning of the Resurrection was not the last page. She still had much work to do with the infant Church, which held together around her, her life still being placed at the service of his plan. Why didn’t the Lord take her with him right away? Nor was her life at the service of his plan completed at her own Assumption, because she still is the Mother of the Church. The Church is still living and it will go on until the end of time. And even then her work will not be done, because then it becomes the Church triumphant of which she is still the Queen. And so, let us determine in all the events of each day to place our lives at the service of his plan. This is the Happiest way that a person can live. (from Come, Lord Jesus, pp. 198-200)
“I found myself . . .”
When you find yourself in a trial or difficult situation, do you see it as the hand of God. Here’s another excerpt from the book I was talking about last time, Green Leaf in Drought, by Isobel Kuhn. It’s from one of Arthur Mathews’ letters home:
John says, I FOUND myself in the isle which is called Patmos–not one jot of credit does he give to the might of Rome. A not one mention escapes him of what he must have endured before eventually “finding” himself there.
He was “found” there just as Philip was “found” at Azotus, and the Mathews’ family is “found” here. The means, circumstances, decisions that led to his finding himself there are unimportant. Faith discerns even behind the Beast the hand of God–for second causes make good disguises and baffle any eyes but the eyes of faith. So to enlarge on the why and the wherefore; to blame himself or his charges; to weigh past decisions for or against . . . is not on John’s mind; nor does he allow any wishful sightings to occupy his thoughts. A more ideal field for just such thoughts could hardly be found. So there is a great deal of comfort for us in John’s early verses of the Revelation. (Green Leaf in Drought, p. 55)
All for the good
Here’s a story I just read about one way God worked all things for the good:
In the devotional book Voices of the Faithful, a missionary couple in South America tells of a local pastor in Uberaba who bought a van to transport people to church. To help make payments on the van, he removed the backseats and did delivery work through the week. But the van needed four new tires, and the pastor had no way of paying for them.
One night the van was stolen from the church property. Some of the church members tried to console their pastor by saying that perhaps it wasn’t God’s will for him to have the van. But he knew he needed the vehicle for God’s work, so he trusted the Lord to work it all for the good.
A few days later, police officers from a nearby town called on him, saying the van had been located and the thief caught. Arriving at the police station, the pastor was surprised to find his vehicle sporting a new set of tires, new backseats, and a radio! He claimed the van, but told the police that the tires, seats, and radio were not his. They must have been installed by the thief.
“Well, I guess that is the thief’s loss and your gain,” replied the police officer. The pastor now has a good van, fully equipped and freshly shod.
(from Robert J. Morgan, The Promise, pp. 95-6)
Witnesses to Hope 