The journey to becoming a board-certified Catholic chaplain, as a laywoman, has not been without struggle. The words of Ephesians 6:10 "Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power." has been a reassurance to me. The Lord has revealed over and over again, the path stones of my journey, cleared obstacles, place supportive people for comfort in my life, and provided wisdom to affirm that His will be accomplished and not mine. My part in this process is to transform continually in surrendering my will, making personal changes that match God's will and increase my spiritual growth through reading and studying. Sounds easy?
Take a look at your own life, when has it ever been easy to surrender your will. Our pride and control make it difficult. While our Western culture seeks to tell everyone how great they are and stems from a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps," approach. Independence is stressed and not community building. While these are useful values and I have certainly benefited from them in my life. Theses values emphasize the "YOU" as if God is on the outside of your life looking in and only invoked if we can't handle something. Our identity becomes human-made, not God made. This identity sets us up for paths of disorientation, and we become lost when life's most significant challenges come such as death, illness, and job loss.
You might be asking, what is the benefit of all this deconstruction of self-will? God's love, peace, and grace. There is nothing more valuable in your life!
If this blog post speaks to your heart, spend some time with the Lord today reflecting on this question: Am I busy doing my life, creating a life someone has told me I should have or focused on the life God has for me? Please pass along this site to a friend, colleague, or family. You may be just the person God has called to help them.
