O God, Your Way Is Holy

O God, Your Way Is Holy

Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

“Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power, driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today. This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.” (Deuteronomy 4:36-40)

O God, your way is holy; what great god is there like our God? (Psalms 77:14)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”(Matthew 16:24-26)

Piety

Lord, your lessons can be hard, but are always needed. Thank you.

 Study

So there you are, tooling along with your little life and everything’s going fine and wham, out of nowhere, something throws you for a loop. Maybe it’s something big and tragic, like the unexpected death of a loved one. Or maybe it’s something big and wonderful but a surprise nonetheless, like a pregnancy or an unanticipated professional opportunity. Or maybe it’s a small annoyance or joy, like that the beach house you usually rent is already booked for the week you wanted or that your new book is out six weeks early and your marketing plan isn’t totally in place.

Does God send us bad things to show us who’s boss, the way Moses reminds the Israelites that God showed them his great fire? I’m not enough of a theologian to posit on that. I just know that when those surprises happen, our first reaction can be shock or disbelief or sometimes even anger at God and why the order in our lives that we have worked so hard to achieve had to be upset. Hours, days, weeks, months, years later, we often can look back and say, “Oh, I get it. I’m stronger/more loving/more patient/calmer for that bump or cavern in the road.”

May we all work at denying ourselves that bit of egoism that allows us to think we’re actually in control of much of anything that matters here on earth. With God’s help, may we reach that holy place where our initial reaction to change is internal peace… and trust.

Action

Where are you being challenged by change, good or bad? Journal about your feelings, and make a note to review the entry in six months to see how your attitude changed.