Trust in the Lord -- ALWAYS!

During this time of uncertainty...I moved from Salem, packed all my stuff, stored it in a garage at St. Mary's in Beaverton, I don't have a job, I don't know for sure where I am going...and so on! I feel very frightened and alone. I am sad. I am tired and stressed. I can't find God! I can't hear God. I pray and my words feel empty.

So this morning when I was meditating on the readings for today...well, God always speaks loud and clear when I am really listening, I read that during a time when wars and rumors of wars were all around the people of God, they trembled and gave in to great fear. But God warned Ahaz that a terrible fate would await Judah unless Judah would stand firm during these frightful times. “If you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all.” The message is clear to me, too: Ahaz is to put his firm trust and confidence in the protection of Yahweh, who alone has the power to save him and his people. Unfortunately, the message will not be heeded by the people (nor by me either, unfortunately!).

In the prophets, faith is not so much a theoretical belief in the existence and uniqueness of God as an attitude of confidence based on God’s choice of Israel: he has chosen Israel, he is Israel’s God, he alone has the power to save his people. This unconditional trust, a guarantee of salvation, excludes all reliance not only on human agency but still more on false gods.

I, too, cannot expect God to stand by me if I do not stand by him. This is not to be interpreted as saying that God is touchy and vindictive and that, if he feels insulted or ignored, he will abandon me or bring some terrible punishment on me. It means that only when I am fully on his side, when his way is fully assimilated into my live will I find the life he promises. If I insist on going my own way, he will not stop me but he will not be able to help me either. I will have shut myself off from his loving help.
(Summarized from a reflection by the Jesuit priests from Ireland.)