Day 26
Gentle (and not so gentle) Lessons From God
Do you feel like God has to teach you the same lessons every year? Especially in Lent? Well, maybe it's my thick head that makes me need the same lessons over and over again! Here's what He's been teaching me (again) this week.
There are times when you're so busy you wonder how you're going to make it through the next day with so little sleep. You wonder how you can always be working but never really get caught up. You feel exhausted and you don't see any end in sight. It's usually those times, when things keep coming up and I have zero time for myself, that God reminds me of something. THIS IS LIFE. THIS IS HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SOMETIMES. It's precisely those times when God is asking us to give more to others (and therefore to Him), to give more than we ever knew possible, to give until it hurts, to love to the point of sacrificing our wants and our time for others.
I realized this week when I thought one night "I have no time to myself, no time to do what I want to do!". The next day I was asked to drop off the track team to their meet in a town 8 miles away. After 2 hours I returned from dropping them off and at first was frustrated that this small task just took 2 hours of my Saturday! It was then that God reminded me... it's actually a good thing! A 30 minute task turns into 2 hours and that's life sometimes, you can get frustrated because it's taking YOUR time or you can realize it's not your time anyway, it's God's time and apparently He has differently plans for you today than what you thought.
It's easier for me to look at other people, in other vocations, and see how they make sacrifices by giving their time and themselves to others. A husband sacrificing to provide for his family, a wife doing laundry at midnight because there was no chance to get it done for the last week, parents waking up in the middle of the night to feed and change the baby, parents waiting to buy the new vehicle so they can give their kids a good education or a family vacation, and priests and sisters giving their whole lives to love and serve God's people, saying goodbye to their family and friends in order to do what God asks of them and go where God needs them. It's easy for me to see sacrifices made out of love in all these ways, but I have to be reminded again and again what it looks like for me, in the single life. It's those little things that annoy you that give you the opportunity to serve God and others everyday. For me as a teacher it's the opportunity to stay afterschool to help the students struggling with English or to talk to a student about the problems he's having at home. Do I want to stay afterschool? ummmm, NO. But it's how God is asking me to give myself to Him through loving others right now. Maybe later I'll be changing diapers in the middle of the night, but right now I'm tutoring kids, going to birthday parties, helping with retreats, thinking of creative detentions, walking kids home at night after youth group, having a coke on Sunday afternoon with them, listening to problems, taking someone to the hospital, praying for people, going to basketball games, chauffeuring people in the church van, and keeping my commitments every night of the week when I really don't feel like going. It's not easy for me because it's not supposed to be easy. It's not just me; it's not easy for anyone in any situation.
So, for the remaining two weeks of Lent, I'm not going to try to make it easy, I'm just going to follow God's ques and be open to the opportunities to love and serve those around me, even when it means I don't get enough sleep or get to watch my favorite TV show. I encourage you to do the same. Try offering to help a friend or neighbor with their yard work, washing the laundry if you're usually not the one in your family that does it, stop by your grandparents' house for an unexpected visit one evening. Trust me, it will be more beneficial for you than them :) Whatever your vocation and situation, God gives us plenty of opportunities to offer our time for others, now we just have to remember to see it as an opportunity not an inconvenience!
