BUSY

One day is like a thousand years 

I've been meaning to write this article for a while now, but, well you know, I've been busy...

Last week on my birthday, I thought to myself, "I'm just 365 days away from a milestone".  If days were like the steps calculated on a Fitbit, my lifetime of days is fast approaching 20,000.  That's the number of steps some ambitious people walk in a single day...

It got me to thinking, that to God, a thousand years are like a single day.  

"But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Where did the time go?  What have I done with my life?  
When I appear before the Lord, what will He say to me?

I have to say that, even at my age, I still have goals; I still have dreams.  At the moment, another chapter in my life is ending, but a new chapter is just beginning.  It's kind of exciting to know that there's more to this novel.  There's a sequel.  And in times of waiting, there's the prequel, where I can look back at the random senseless-at-the-time events and see how the pieces fit into the plot of my life.

PREQUEL

I started a new life journey about four years ago.  Before I moved here, it was a time spent waiting.  The rut I was stuck in felt more like the deepest depths of the ocean; I felt like I had sunk so deep that I'd never reach the surface.  Too weak, too paralyzed to move.   

I thought to myself, "There has to be more to life than this".   From the outside looking in, one might think that I "had it all".  And perhaps in the world's eyes, maybe I did.  But no one could see the emptiness of the facade that was my life.  And there were those who thought I would never walk away from my cushy little life.  Well, actually I was pushed out.  Swept away.  Discarded.  Some people thought I should stay anyway.

Joshua 1:9 became my daily mantra.  I contented myself with lots of reading, journaling, meditation and prayer.  I practiced Lectio Divina before I knew there was a term for what I was doing, opening my heart to hearing and understanding what God wanted me to hear; learning more about Jesus and deepening my relationship with Him.

The more I studied the Scriptures, the more I longed to live a Christ-centered life.  Eventually, all those months of perseverance and prayer paid off.  And almost in the blink of an eye, I saw doors open and obstacles obliterated.  God heard my prayers, and He blessed me with everything I needed to follow Him and serve Him.  I threw myself wholeheartedly into every opportunity.  I felt that my busy-ness was an atonement to make up for all the years I seemed to have wasted.  I acquired a Joy deep within, as God showed His visible presence in my surroundings.

Here in the Northeast, we have the four distinctive seasons.  And in the same way, our lives evolve through various seasons.  Four years ago, I longed for Action; instead I spent months in intense Prayer.  Then God led me to a new job, to Cursillo, and tons of new friends and situations where I serve Him daily.  I still begin every morning in prayer, but I miss the two to three hour sessions!  Just as I once longed for Action, now I find myself longing for more time for Prayer.   

We need to have a balance.  But God's idea of balance may be different from ours.  During those seemingly endless months of "doing nothing", He was preparing me.  It just goes to show you that we need to cherish each moment of the cycles of our lives. 

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven...
I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.  He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 10-11)    

Summer is known for its gorgeous sunny days, but it's also known for the dangerous storms.  We may be pelted with pea-size hail as the torrential rains fall, and we run for shelter if we see lightning.  Just as we know that the storms will come to an end, we should also know that life's storms come and go. It was the same with my idyllic new life.  Everything was so wonderful; I used to think that God was giving me a break after what I endured.  Then the rains began to fall; a light mist at first.  In 2015, I gave up "complaining" for Lent.  I jokingly say that I'll never do that again!  I felt like Job, put to the test, as my idyllic life was hammered not with pea-size but with golfball-size problems.  

My dear friend Carolyn recently wrote to me, "The spiritual warriors are coming at you with such force (which proves you must be posing a threat of great magnitude).  So keep on keeping on!  'If God is with you, who can stand against you?'" (Romans 8:31)  

With the grace of God, I endure.  I must be on the right track, if the spiritual warriors are intensifying their attack.  All these distractions cannot stop me from fulfilling my God-given purpose.  

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)

Fr. Alfred Delp, the German Jesuit priest who was condemned to death by the Nazis in 1945, wrote this:  

So no matter what happens, no matter how deep the ruts or how big the hailstorm, nothing on earth or under the earth can stop the power of Christ which lives in me.  

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)  

SEQUEL

The sequel hasn't been published yet.  I don't know whether I have 10 days left or 10,000.

Only God knows.