Wednesday, Week 4 - With God in All Times

"How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (Matthew 23:37)

    Our awareness of the loving presence of God does not mean that we will never have moments of feelings angry at God or abandoned by God or be just plain unfeeling toward God during times of loss. These are natural, human responses of grief and some feel them more strongly than others. But we will not go on forever blaming God for causing the situation or for not intervening and stopping the event. If our image of God is a positive one, we will eventually return to a time when we recognize the comfort and love that are waiting there for us.
    Our God is a God who dwells within, a loving presence near to us who yearns for our happiness, one who walks with us in our struggles. If our God is a God who holds us close as a mother hen gathers her chicks close to her, then we will come through our goodbyes with a deeper sense of being tenderly cared for by our God and we will draw comfort and strength from this presence.

    Now it is officially after Lent, and of course, I did not make it through all of the reflections (really, not even close). But I have found this exercise to be peaceful and always intended for this Lenten promise to last beyond Easter Sunday, whether I had finished the reflections provided by Sr. Joyce, or not.
    Tonight, I am reminded once again of the constant presence of God not just in my life, but within me. As I began to read through Sr. Joyce's reflection, thoughts crept into my mind... I know, already. How many times do you have to tell me, "God is with you"?
    The answer to that question is this: Over, and over, and over again. How quickly I forget, how quickly I fail to acknowledge God's presence in my life on a daily ... hourly basis! Why not hourly? Shouldn't everything I do be for the greater glory of God? Couldn't it?
    Looking back over the patterns of my life, I know this much about myself: I do not grow angry with God during the dark times of my life. In fact, my relationship with Him consistently thrives in those times. I have been blessed with the natural instinct to turn to Him, not against Him, when I am in the most need. Where I'd like to progress is in those times when things are going my way. All too often I take my life for granted when it's shaped up to be just what I had hoped. Sometimes I even make the grave mistake of crediting myself for how well my life is going, rather than Him...