The Reality of Life

Friday 5/9/2014 4:14 AM

Over the course of the last week I have given my final midterm test in each of my classes.  This always entails a lot of grading time, most of which for me occurs in the early mornings.  I am also preparing for final exams, updating my website, and writing the exams.  This often results in a lack of time for my regular exercise and devotional time.  Today is the first time since Sunday that I have sat down to read my Bible and contemplate what God is trying to say to me.

I anticipated words of condemnation that would result in feelings of guilt and remorse but I received just the opposite.  My psalm for the week is Psalm 131 and verse 2 describes my state of mind today.  “But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.”  The contentment I feel is not a complacency about my lack of devotional time but more an acceptance of the circumstances of the week that have precluded me from having time alone with God.  Part of my reading included a description of the prophets of Jerusalem found in Jeremiah 23:14, “They commit adultery and live a lie.”  When I first read the verse I thought it could convict me but as I contemplated the verse I realized that trying to pretend everything is wonderful and that my life is a breeze during the stress of trying to get everything accomplished by the end of the semester is really living a lie.

In his book Letters from the Desert, Carlo Carretto has some comforting words that reinforce that message this morning.  He writes, “Everyday things, relationships with other people, daily work, love of our family – all these things may breed saints. … Every hour of the day is useful and may lead to divine inspiration, the will of the Father, the prayer of contemplation – holiness.  Every hour of the day is holy.  What matters is to live it as Jesus taught us.  And for this one does not have to shut oneself in a monastery or fix strange and inhumane regimes for one’s life.  It is enough to accept the realities of life.  Work is one of these realities; motherhood, the rearing of children, family life with all its obligations are others.”

Thank God for his word of grace this morning.  Life happens and God is in the midst of every bit of it.