LIVING IN LOVE

Responding to God

 I can’t explain it. I feel a nudge from God to something out of the ordinary. How do I respond?

 You’re in good company! Abraham was asked to leave all he knew and loved for a strange land, with only abstract divine assurance that such a sacrifice would be worth it. Plenty of prophets protested against God’s call, whether it was claiming they were too young (Jeremiah) or running away entirely, only to end up in a whale’s belly (Jonah). St. Joseph was asked to do something very strange. He was asked to believe — on the word of an angelic appearance in a dream — that his betrothed was pregnant not from another man, but by a miraculous intervention of God. Then he was called to marry her.

Author Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.” Sometimes God’s invitation might seem strange or challenging. It might require sacrifices we never expected to make. Our life might look different than we had always imagined. But as we all know, life throws its own curveballs, regardless of whether or not we’re listening for God’s will. Better, one would think, to be open to the promptings of God and to follow along the strange trails that they lead. We have the assurance that, eventually, we will find green pastures.

Daily readings         Audio