By Sister Mary Scholastica, O.C.D.
Many, if not most of us, have the belief and perspective that there are problems everywhere. We see things in ourselves we don’t like, we see things in others we don’t like. We view all these things as “problems”. We see our families and the struggles therein, we see our cities, our nation, our world, our church – and we start to feel overwhelmed by all the problems. It’s not to say there aren’t challenges everywhere, there are. However, the reality of life includes hardship.
There is this deep-rooted desire in us to coast through life, devoid of hardship and struggle. To live a life of ease and comfort. And when we experience hardship, we see it as “problematic”. It’s interesting when you stop to think about our resistance to hardship. The basic human experience of life comes with hardship and struggle. Your own body evolving from the womb to infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood to our elder years, this growth includes life and some form of death which means change, struggle, transformation.
This downward trajectory towards pain-free ease and comfort causes us to equate all things that pull us out of this natural gravitational pull, as a problem. Can you imagine if we CHOSE to see all these elements of life as opportunities for growth, an opportunity to become more fully the people God is calling us to be? It’s always easier to take the easy route. No effort is needed. The benefits are not substantial nor inspiring. The harder route, the route you must consciously choose to struggle through, the benefits are exponential. The fruits not only inspire, it causes our roots to grow deep so that when storms come, we are able to stand strong and withstand all natural and man-made disasters.
Is it that we have innumerable problems or is it that we are so mired in this perspective of life, it’s all that we know to see?
And if I may, some of us walk around making nothing or little “somethings” into big problems. It is a nice comfortable space, after all. You feel important, you feel like you’re doing something worthwhile, it gives you an opportunity to “solve” something. You’re busy “solving problems”. There are those of us who speak so often of our problems, others already know what to expect and brace themselves to receive it. There are others of us who take on other peoples’ problems because if they make mistakes or drop balls, it reflects on us, and we don’t want that. Sometimes we take on problems we shouldn’t even be taking on because it makes us “feel” good about ourselves, useful, like we’re doing something worthwhile. It makes us feel wanted and important, needed. And many of us exaggerate our own importance in this regard by exaggerating the problem.
Problems. Problems. Problems.
This first full week of November holds so many unknowns. Simply because life is full of unknowns. Your life, my life, can change in an instant. Whether it’s the year 1950, 1998, 2015, 2024 or 2030. Whoever lived then, whoever lives now and whoever will be alive in the future, there were and are and will be so many unknowns. It’s something that is guaranteed in life. The unknowns.
Yes, there are times when the unknowns bring with it hardship. But we are in this world to engage in the battle of life. And yes, it is often a battle. The battle begins within us and then extends all around us. In the eyes of eternity, I think we would be greatly surprised with God’s perspective. The unexpected blessings that flow from entering into the unknown, the hardship that brought about new life (and sometimes it’s not for you alone, sometimes it might even be a grace for someone you’ve never even met!), the suffering that allowed you to share in His carrying of the cross to Calvary. Jesus after all struggled through life, suffered, was misunderstood, persecuted and in the end, died on the cross for you and me. For love. It all makes sense in the context of LOVE. All of it.
Let love permeate your perspective. Let love filter into every aspect of your life – the hardships, the problems, the unknowns. If indeed, you live each moment the best you can and persevere through each moment with Love and for the sake of Love (Love is capitalized for a reason as it refers to Him!), all will be well. It will be. New life, different perspective, growth opportunities. All flowing from Love and all moving us to Love.
In the end, it’s not that problems are everywhere. It’s that God is everywhere and as St. John of the Cross notes, “wherever His glance falls, He turns all things into beauty.”
