Just a Reminder for When Things Get Tough...

Last summer when I was having a rough go for awhile, I went to church one day and the sermon was really incredible. I took notes because I really wanted to remember what the pastor said, and I just came across those notes while I was cleaning my apartment. I am going to type them up (partly so I can get rid of the ones scrawled across random bits of paper I found in my purse that night) so I can remember them--it was awesome wisdom.

These were words from Fr. John Ridgway, and they were centered around wisdom from Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41. Basically it's about how to respond when we're having tough times:

*We should ask for the grace to turn over our struggles with complete trust to Jesus.

*Trust Jesus to handle our storms as he sometimes does unexpectedly as he moves with us toward calm.

*Ask for 3 Graces:

• Insight and Light/Wisdom: To know how to receive those graces with freedom so we can learn the lessons we should be learning and to recognize where/when/how God's calm comes to us.
• Knowledge: To know the best options/most viable choices
• Patience/Trust/Wisdome: To recognize how God bids us to cooperate and to reassess, if necessary, how we respond to storms

*Sometimes it's necessary to ride out the storm, recognizing we are held with trust and held in care.

*ASK FOR GOD'S CALMING POWER!! (And for his trust/wisdom.)

*Pray for knowledge to know more intimately who the sea and the wind obey. :)

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So those were the hastily scrawled notes I wrote, but I think they're pretty fantastic tips on how to deal when the storms move in. After church, if you asked him, he would give you a slip of paper that he had typed up with the three main points (apparently at earlier services where he'd given the same talk, lots of people asked him for something with it, so by the last service, when I went, he had it!), so we'll see how my version compares:

1. Ask for God's light and guidance--and for the capacity to hear and recieve those graces with freedom and clarity--so we can recognize where, when, and how God's calming action shows itself.
2. Pray for knowledge about what our options and best choices are when squalls blow in.
3. Pray for wisdom, trust, and patience to understand how we can cooperate with God in implementing what we've heard in prayer--be willing to reassess--if necessary--our actions as God and we proceed forward together toward a leeward harbor.