I've been reading an excellent book lately by Ronald Rolheiser. Rolheiser is a priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a specialist in spirituality and systematic theology, an accomplished author and frequent columnist for the Catholic Herald. In Forgotten Among The Lilies; Learning to Love Beyond Our Fears, Fr. Rolheiser explores some of the intense obsessions that dominate our lives and offers down-to-earth guidance for learning how to leave our fears and anxieties behind. In my opinion, this is easily his best book.
In the chapter God Overcomes Scrambled Eggs, he inspires the reader to trust in our Heavenly Father. Fr. Rolheiser commences the chapter by relaying a conversation he had with a young man. The young man confides in him that he had an affair with a young woman who then became pregnant. For a series of reasons, marriage was out of the question. The pregnancy would interrupt both of their lives, and also the child to be born. Sadly, the young man ends the conversation on a note of hopelessness and despair saying, "There is no way I'll ever live normally again, beyond this. Even God can't unscramble an egg."
Fr. Rolheiser goes how to say that he, "has gathered that everyone has some type of skeleton in the closet. Some people may be extremely scarred from a broken marriage, an abortion, a religious commitment that did not work out, a pregnancy outside of marriage, a betrayed trust, a broken relationship, an affair or another serious mistake, sometimes even without sin. Some of these things may cause some people to feel like they have put a mark on themselves like that of Cain. They may feel so horribly that they believe that even God would not be able to forgive them."
Those who know me personally know that I was in college seminary for a semester. The past few years following my brief stay in the seminary have been challenging as I continue to sort out and discern God's plan for my life. I occasionally feel the guilt of not being strong enough to fully commit to seminary. It can be painful and sometimes disheartening not knowing or understanding what God's intentions are for my life. It's because of this that I can relate with others who feel scarred from the difficulties of making decisions in their lives.
In times like these we should strive to remind ourselves of the old adage, "God closes one door, and opens another." We as a Christian community need to remember that God is not a hard-handed Ruler, but an extremely forgiving Creator, and He never wants us to feel that He is incapable of doing good with messy situations. It is through our dark experiences that God can do the most wondrous healing and miracle working. God will continue to bless us with beautiful supporting families, great friends and continuous opportunities for growth in faith and in love despite the hardships that we may have faced. To put it in Fr. Rolheiser's words, "Let God's grace let you live happily and with renewed innocence far beyond any egg that we may have scrambled."
God will never abandon you. Take heart. God loves you and will never cease to stop.
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