You Write About It, and Then It Happens!

The day after last week’s post about faith and trusting God’s hand in your life, I was running late for a flight, and got out of my normal routine going through security (i.e., a routine that gives me a sense of control).

After grabbing a sandwich, I stopped just short of the gate area at the end of the concourse (#1) to stuff it in my backpack and noticed my computer was missing. Panicked, I started running down the long concourse at full speed to get back to security, thinking I’d forgotten to pick it up since it was the last item through x-ray.

As I neared the airport chapel off to my right (#2), it dawned on me that I’d stopped after security in a different place and re-sorted all of my things, placing the computer on a ledge in front of an airport restaurant. Changing direction toward the restaurant (#3), the computer was amazingly still sitting on the ledge in full view exactly where it was left.

God was watching out for me – no big surprise! At least I realized right then that it was while I was passing the chapel that the computer’s location popped back in my memory!

Blessings,
Mike

Going to Extremes - St. Philip Neri

You Gotta Have Faith

Advance notice – I’m not a theologian. And I don’t play one on TV, although I do watch a lot of them. This is just me thinking…

One measure of “faith” could be how readily we’re able to see God at work in your lives. It’s challenging to recognize it as things are happening, and may be only slightly less challenging after the fact. As an example, for years I had prayed for the return of my faith, even while I wasn’t sure there was value in the prayer itself. My prayers (and those of others) were answered beyond my wildest expectations. Yet it took almost two years to have the a-ha moment where I connected the incredible gift with the prayers. Arghhhhhh!

To have the grace to anticipate, depend on, and surrender to God’s hand in your life before the fact may indicate the faith of a future saint. Suffice it to say that I (and probably most of us) have what seems like an insurmountable way to go.

While I’ve become a little more faithful in some areas, it seems they’re pretty insignificant. At least now on some small annoyances (i.e., needing to copy a file from an uncooperative computer before leaving for work) my frustration may be overcome by a sense that “there’s a reason for this.” Invariably something will happen so that the task that seemed so urgent and tested my patience will be easily accomplished at the “right” time later that day.

What’s helped me get even this far is a prayer formally called the Suscipe composed by St. Ignatius Loyola. I call it the “surrender” prayer and try to say it multiple times daily, especially in quiet moments and those where it appears I’m trying to get in God’s way. I encourage you to consider praying it too. You’ll hear answers if you listen.

Last December amid many professional challenges that seemed overwhelming for my skills and strengths, I heard a message while exercising that was incredibly clear: “They aren’t your talents; they’re mine. Quit doubting them.” It was very true, as the specific challenges were resolved more beneficially than I could ever have imagined or purposely directed.

So now my prayer is that God will grace me with faith in the reassurance that there are talents so much greater than mine that are there to guide me, if only I will follow.

Blessings,

Mike

Promises, Promises

With this new blog, I promise to:

1. Not post every day.
2. Post at least once a week.
3. Be more spiritually oriented than in my other blogs.

There may be other promises to make, but that's a solid foundation.

This blog will based on material relevant to my "Aligning Your Life's Work" presentation.

It conveys the message that trying to get to "balance" in life is futile (at least it was for me); instead, it's better to figure out what is truly (read: eternally) important and devote yourself to aligning your life toward those things. Not a new concept, but one that's been tremendously powerful for me, as I've learned to surrender more of what "I want" and do more of what God wants to direct me to do.

Thanks for reading and being willing to check back on an irregular basis. To that end, I encourage you to sign up for the email feed in the upper left corner of the blog!

Blessings,

Mike