Tuesday, October 9, 2012

NOT CREATED FOR NAUGHT

Ah ha! Just what I was looking for!

Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
composed this declaration:

"God has created me to do Him some definite service.
He has committed some work to me
which he has not committed to another.

"I have a mission; I may never know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons;
He has not created me for naught.
 
"I shall do good—I shall do His work.
I shall be an angel of peace while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him."

The above is exactly the statement of affirmation I was trying to make when I wrote the following poem earlier this week. Both Newman's declaration and my poem summarize what I have personally sensed since my childhood—not fully understood, sometimes doubted, often was amazed at, at times dug in my heels against—but always pondered in my knowing spirit as true. 
 
Like the many facets of a diamond, this mission, this destiny, this purpose, this journey God has put me on for eighty decades since my baptism as an infant, has had multiple reflections in its outworking. Step by step it is still being revealed as I keep marveling at how God leads me. In different seasons of my life the Lord has required me to walk diverse and unknown paths, “roads less traveled.” Sometimes my road has become a bridge, sometimes a link in a chain, sometimes a bond of connection, sometimes peacemaking, sometimes a catalyst to enable God's larger purposes to be fulfilled.

My response is less than perfect at times because I “see through a glass darkly” as Saint Paul described it. Most of the time, however, my heart-stance is to say an emphatic “YES, LORD!” It is my personal continuing “fiat”: “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.

At times I feel as if I am blindfolded or stumbling in the darkness because God has not spread out plainly before me His agenda for my mission. At times I have been afraid that, humanly speaking, everything has gone askew. I ask His forgiveness when I have demanded full light upon my path or been impatient and insisted He tell me the outcome in this life. It's hard to wait “till Later!”

Nevertheless, in the words of an old Christian hymn, “I will trust and obey, for there's no other way.” So I will keep taking only the next step He reveals, doing His work and keeping His commandments. Since God has always proved faithful, “Therefore, I will trust Him.”

RELENTLESS WIND*
Leona Choy

THE WIND has blown through my life
from infancy through all the changing years
propelling me
along the paths of time.

Sometimes gently whispering
Sometimes urgently redirecting me
altering my self-planned course
to thrust me
along new paths of time.

THE WIND blew unrecognized
through my innocent childhood years.
In youth's impetuosity oft withstood
by the stubbornness of my self-will
as I stumbled
along my private paths of time.

In prime and senescent years
THE WIND continues to blow
lovingly, patiently
in spite of my resistant humanity.

RELENTLESS WIND:
Grant me the grace to live
this allotted span of earth-time
given me so munificently
to accomplish some ordained portion
of God's Kingdom destiny
some mission to bring me
ultimately to behold His face
in Eternity and receive His words
“Well done, good and faithful servant!”

------

* THE WIND=The Holy Spirit

2 comments:

Vicky M. Tucker said...

Just wanted to let you know that I have read MY JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF MORE and am starting LIVING THE TREASURES IN THE LAND OF MORE. I am enjoying these books very much. Since I am learning about the Catholic church and am planning to attend RCIA locally, what you've written is very, very helpful. I almost feel as if you're a friend walking along this path with me! God bless you.

Unknown said...

beautiful! love this poem too