I feel most comfortable when I am in control. Not only do I wish to be the one who drives the car on a road trip, I want to be the person who plans the road trip…and when we stop…and for how long. Relinquishing that control to God has been something I have really come to value over the past few years.
A few years ago, I visited a friend in St. Louis, where things were not going according to plan. I felt overwhelmed, confused, and lonely so I went for a run. On this run, I recalled that there was a church nearby, Saint Louis Cathedral Basilica. I opted to stop in and visit. In a stunning home fit for twenty – five hundred people, there were a mere five there that morning. I sat in one of the pews on the left and played everyone’s favorite game of Bible reading roulette. I opened the lectionary to a random page and found John 14 – “ Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I sat there and wept.
It is moments like these, and in today’s reading, that I am reminded that I am not the one in the driver’s seat. Heck, I am not even the one planning the trip! I am in awe when I ask God for answers, and instead he replies, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.” What a gift, and a challenge, to trust that he has a plan laid out for you? What experiences remind you of that trust?
—Sheila Walsh is a math teacher and alum of Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, IL.