You’ll find yourself having to surrender to “God’s will” or “God’s desires” or just God. But not in the way that you might think. Often when we think about God’s will, we think of trying to figure it all out. What is God’s will? What am I supposed to do? But there is a danger: We might overlook the fact that God’s “plan” often doesn’t need much figuring out or discernment. Sometimes it’s right in front of us. When it comes to daily life, God’s will is not some abstract idea to be figured out or puzzled over or even discerned. Rather, God’s will is what is presented before us every day

“The challenge lies in learning to accept this truth and act upon it,” he [Walter Ciszek] writes. The realization that this is what God is inviting you to experience at this moment. It is the understanding that somehow God is with you, at work and revealed in a new way in this experience. God invites us to accept the inescapable realities placed in front of us. We can either turn away from that acceptance of life and continue on our own, or we can plunge into the “reality pf thr situation.”

In vulnerability, in poverty of spirit, in brokenness, we are often able to meet God in new ways—perhaps because our guard is down and we are more open to God’s presence. This is not the “why” of suffering, but it can sometimes be part of the overall experience.

Just as every believer must find a personal path to God, so must he or she find a personal perspective on suffering. And while the collective wisdom of the religious community is a great resource, the platitudes and bromides offered by otherwise well-meaning believers as quick-fix answers are often unhelpful. Sometimes those easy answers short-circuit the process of deeper individual reflection.

God sometimes asks each of us to accept certain things that seem at the time unacceptable. Unbearable. Even impossible. For me it was loneliness and tiredness. For another it might be terrible illness. For another, the loss of a job. For another, the death of a spouse. For another, a stressful family situation.

This doesn’t mean you court those things or that some things should not be changed. Rather, some struggles in life are unavoidable. Embracing them may sometimes lead to new ways of finding God. This small insight may pale in the face of whatever suffering you are experiencing. The insight goes by many names: accepting the “reality of the situation,” as Walter Ciszek would say; surrendering to “the future that God has in store,” as Sister Janice would say; taking up “your cross daily,” as Jesus would say. Acceptance. Abandonment. Humility. Poverty of spirit. Finding God in all things.

#quote #JamesMartin #TheJesuitGuideToAlmostEverything #loneliness #tiredness #GiftOfTears can i surrender to the future that God has in store for me? can i accept and carry my cross?

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