When I was about ten years old, my father forgot to pick me up from piano class. I think this has happened in every big family at least once - a child gets forgotten. Poor parents, trying to keep not only their own schedules, but five children's as well in mind - extra classes, sports, Sunday school, exams, birthday parties - no personal chauffeur could work so hard. I was safely waiting in a housing society that evening, but still I remember the incredulity of thinking, 'Is he just late or has he really forgotten me?' I finally went to a friend's house and phoned home, and my poor father realized he had actually forgotten me.
I have grown up in a pretty secure and happy family (though not perfectly so). But many of us have not. Not all kids know what it is to feel safe in their own homes, to know that when they are in trouble, there is someone who will come rescue them, to know that they can confidently go and ask their parents for what they need, and to know that someone's got their back.
And yet ALL of us seem to struggle with what many Christians call 'an orphan spirit'. It is something within us that tells us there is NO ONE we can fully trust, that we have to look after ourselves, because no one else will. Too many of us live our lives in fear and anxiety, chasing after security, after safety, because we don't feel secure or safe. The orphan spirit is manifested in many ways. Do you often feel alone, abandoned, isolated? Do you worry constantly about your children and those in your care? Do you worry constantly about your future? Do you often focus on wealth and worldly success and financial security as a way to allay that fear? Do you feel like God is present but not really involved in your daily cares and concerns? Do you feel like there are many problems that God expects you just to figure out yourself and not bother Him with?
I have bad news and good news.
The bad news is there is NOTHING you can do that can ultimately protect you from bad things happening to you. You can do EVERYTHING humanly possible to protect and provide for yourself and your family, and still it can all disappear in a blink of an eye. Scary, huh? All your toiling and striving is in vain.
But here's the good news. YOU ARE NOT AN ORPHAN. You have a Father who is deeply and intimately committed to your well-being. You do NOT have to protect or provide for yourself. You have a Father in heaven who LOVES to provide for His children. God is not just a benevolent being watching from afar. He is so close. And at the heart of our Christian faith is the truth that we have been adopted into His family, and that we are not alone anymore. We are not alienated. He will never abandon us. Any voice that tells you anything different is the voice of the Enemy. That's what he did in the beginning. He spoke to our ancestors with a persuasive voice saying, "Can you REALLY trust Him? Perhaps He does not have your well-being in mind."
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. CCC 397
God is trustworthy. That doesn't mean he doesn't expect us to be responsible, to work, to take reasonable precautions, to be faithful to the tasks and people He has entrusted to us. What is does mean is that He wants to set us free from the lie that we are ultimately in charge of our own security. He wants to set us free to live as sons and daughters.
What does that look like? I have met a few people who live like that. You can see in them a deep sense of security and peace. They have built their life on a firm foundation, a truth that nothing and no one can take away from them. They are free to make counter-cultural choices out of obedience to Christ, and they get to taste the fruits of that obedience. Their choices look different from the rest of the world, because they have different priorities, and they're not scared. Well, maybe they're scared sometimes but they don't let that fear rule them.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." Matthew 6: 25 -34
When I live as a child of God, I not only have more peace of mind, but I give God the space to provide for me, to guide me, and to be a Father to me. When I live as an orphan, I am so busy looking after myself that I will not let Him. I have seen Him provide again and again in miraculous ways when I have gone to Him in total abandonment and said, "Daddy, You know what I need. Please take care of me."
“There is absolutely nothing that gives us more peace or does more to make us holy than obeying the will of God.”
― Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence
I have bad news and good news.
The bad news is there is NOTHING you can do that can ultimately protect you from bad things happening to you. You can do EVERYTHING humanly possible to protect and provide for yourself and your family, and still it can all disappear in a blink of an eye. Scary, huh? All your toiling and striving is in vain.
But here's the good news. YOU ARE NOT AN ORPHAN. You have a Father who is deeply and intimately committed to your well-being. You do NOT have to protect or provide for yourself. You have a Father in heaven who LOVES to provide for His children. God is not just a benevolent being watching from afar. He is so close. And at the heart of our Christian faith is the truth that we have been adopted into His family, and that we are not alone anymore. We are not alienated. He will never abandon us. Any voice that tells you anything different is the voice of the Enemy. That's what he did in the beginning. He spoke to our ancestors with a persuasive voice saying, "Can you REALLY trust Him? Perhaps He does not have your well-being in mind."
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. CCC 397
God is trustworthy. That doesn't mean he doesn't expect us to be responsible, to work, to take reasonable precautions, to be faithful to the tasks and people He has entrusted to us. What is does mean is that He wants to set us free from the lie that we are ultimately in charge of our own security. He wants to set us free to live as sons and daughters.
What does that look like? I have met a few people who live like that. You can see in them a deep sense of security and peace. They have built their life on a firm foundation, a truth that nothing and no one can take away from them. They are free to make counter-cultural choices out of obedience to Christ, and they get to taste the fruits of that obedience. Their choices look different from the rest of the world, because they have different priorities, and they're not scared. Well, maybe they're scared sometimes but they don't let that fear rule them.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." Matthew 6: 25 -34
When I live as a child of God, I not only have more peace of mind, but I give God the space to provide for me, to guide me, and to be a Father to me. When I live as an orphan, I am so busy looking after myself that I will not let Him. I have seen Him provide again and again in miraculous ways when I have gone to Him in total abandonment and said, "Daddy, You know what I need. Please take care of me."
Today's first reading says 'See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.' 1 John 3: 1
Let us live in the freedom of the children of God. You do not need to be worried or fearful or disturbed. God's got you. You don't have to have everything figured out. God will show you when you need to know. It's not really His style to give too much information in advance. He wants you to clutch His hand, and walk forward trustingly and confidently.
Be not afraid! You are a child of God!
This is so true.. Trusting God is very freeing. Thanks for putting it across so clearly
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