As I write this I’m cruising at 30,000 feet on my way to Omaha, Nebraska to spend the week at the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) at Creighton University. IPF is a wonderful program designed to help seminarians enter into a deeper relationship with the Holy Trinity. There are 175 seminarians from all over the country that will spend ten weeks studying, praying, and doing volunteer work.
My flight was scheduled to leave Providence at 12:30, but due to bad weather in Detroit it was delayed by about an hour. The delay almost made me miss my connection, but the pilot did a good job of “making up time in the air.” On a side note, I’ve never figured that one out: if they can make up time in the air, why don’t they just increase the flight speed all the time to shorten all flights?
The short delay prompted me to ponder some life lessons:
God’s delays are not God’s denials
Recently, I was listening to some inspirational CDs and the speaker was talking about challenges. He said that God’s delays are not God’s denials, meaning that sometimes the Lord allows things to happen in our lives to strengthen us; or sometimes the Lord doesn’t answer our prayer in the way or time that we would have it. It’s not that God is denying our request, but as our loving Father He knows what’s best for us. Things happen for a reason, and it’s important for us to learn to live in His Divine Will and to trust that He knows what’s best for us. It’s also a great lesson in perseverance.
Some things are beyond our control
At times I can be a control freak. I want things to happen my way and in my time. But life isn’t that easy. Each day we experience things that are beyond our control. This is an important lesson in surrender. Knowing that certain things are beyond our control can help us to surrender more to God’s will. If we approach each day knowing that God is in control, then we can live with more peace.
Choosing peace and calm is better than giving into anger and impatience
I usually have good luck traveling, and even if I have bad luck I’ve learned to remain calm. Somehow over the years, with God’s help, I’ve learned to manage my fiery Italian and Lebanese temperament. If you travel at all, you’ll notice that not everyone takes kindly to travel disruptions. I’ve been blessed to travel quite a bit, and I’ve seen some pretty serious tantrums in airports. In February, I witnessed a woman in Heathrow Airport in London throwing a serious fit. She was on a rampage, and it was very uncomfortable for all to witness. She may have had reason to be upset, but her behavior was completely out of control and it affected everyone around her. I truly felt bad for the man who I think was her husband. He looked like he wanted to run away–and he very well may have after they landed! My experience is that when I give into anger and impatience I never feel as good as when I remain in a state of peace and calm. Remember, some things are beyond our control.
So there you have it, a few spiritual lessons learned from a short flight delay. For now I’m going to power off as we make our decent. There’s a cute baby with an adorable smile two seats in front of me. In a few minutes, she’ll most likely be wailing from ear pain. But that’s another lesson for another blog…
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Fr. Mike,
My eyes were especially opened by “God’s delays are not God’s denials.” I know that’s true, but how can one tell the difference? It’s just that sometimes I think I like to think of some things as denial so I don’t keep hoping/expecting/longing. And so I know persisting and trusting that God is bringing it in His own time is part of having faith… but when is it faith and when is it just a sign that it (dream career/house/mate/ etc.). I don’t know if this is way off topic, but how can we tell the difference between “No” and “Not yet.”
Thanks,
Len
Len,
Hmmm. That may be a topic for another post! I think we need to pay attention to what happens in our daily lives. Sometimes the Lord can use the very ordinary to respond to our prayers. Pay attention to what’s happening in your heart when you pray. Example: if you’re praying about a career, you may have a sense in your heart as to whether or not the Lord is really inviting you to take that path. Daily prayer is important so that we can be tuned into what the Spirit is speaking to us.
You have such a gift Fr. Mike of explaining the realities of our Faith with examples from such mundane human events. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your kind words Michelle!
Michael, I really appreciate this post. What you say resonates:
“He said that God’s delays are not God’s denials, meaning that sometimes the Lord allows things to happen in our lives to strengthen us; or sometimes the Lord doesn’t answer our prayer in the way or time that we would have it.”
Except for me that “sometimes” has been “most of the time”. God’s will is often different from mine, and quite unfathomable.
Tony,
God’s will is often different than ours; that’s why the challenge is to allow our hearts and wills to be conformed to His! Unfathomable is a good word!
God’s delays not being God’s denials… so true and yet so hard to fathom. We have become a society of instant gratification. To have to wait bothers us or makes us think no one is listening or cares. This tends to be particularly true when we think that “no one” is God.
Thank you for the wonderful reminder that delay does not equal denial.
Nicki,
In our culture, waiting is indeed very difficult. The Lord invites us to patience, calm, and peace. Not exactly what our culture values! Good to see you here as always.
I once got stranded in Hawaii as a result of a typhoon. Got myself an extra day of sightseeing and complimentary night at a fancy hotel.
BTW, did you offer to soothe the cute baby to give the parents a little break? : )
Not a bad deal: free night at a hotel and more siteseeing. And…no…I did not offer to give the parents a break! : )
This one definetely is a hard one to take. Although, the trafic/delay thing isn’t a problem for me when it comes to travel, I am actually soothed by waiting in traffic, line, etc., weird huh? But in life it is the little disturbances in my daily plans that can cause me to get quite disturbed even when they aren’t really a big deal. Like that baby I can’t understand the discomfort and just want to wail because Daddy isn’t making it go away or not be there in the first place. So often lately especially when I reflect on what I feel are unanswered prayers I see my own temper tantrums with God so clearly and just try to humbly appologize for my blindness. It is really difficult to wait and lately that seems to be His message quite often, “Do nothing, just let me work in you and through you.” Lord, I will do my best to take a deep breath and let you work in your own time. Amen.
Christine,
The great thing is your honesty with the Lord. I think he loves that when we can express our true feelings to Him.
Peace!
This looks like a great blog. God bless You!
Hello Father. I stumbled across your blog and entry above as a sip my coffee here in downtown San Francisco, California. Thank you =)) It got me off to a good start