When asked to do something that you don’t want, how do you respond? - Daily Reflections January 25,2015

TEACH ME YOUR WAYS, O LORD

There are some hard lessons to learn in life. Some mistakes and missteps don’t lead to happy endings but to grief. Certain acts done impulsively don’t produce desirable results. But, as they say, the tragedy is not in falling but in not getting up after the fall.

        Jonah is a regular guy, like you and me. A bit stubborn, he refused to obey the command of the Lord to prophesy against Nineveh. He knew what was coming. He predicted rightly that Assyria would be used by God to punish Israel. He trusted his feelings.

       As a counselor, one of the things I learned is to be in touch with my feelings — to define them, label them, and accept them. I sympathize with Jonah for feeling what he felt and I don’t judge him for that. But although feelings have a role in discerning what is best thing to do, and that no decision can be made without factoring in feelings, in the end, the will, aided by the mind and heart, needs to come up with a decision. And this is where Jonah was sorely lacking — deciding to do as God would have him do, feelings or no feelings.

       God knows how many times I was told to do things I didn’t want to do. My first assignment as a 21-year-old religious, fresh from philosophical and college studies, was in a place everyone was wary of. My feelings told me to rebel, to dislike, to refuse, to reject — exactly like Jonah did.

       Thankfully, there was no whale anywhere near to swallow me whole. But I was swallowed whole by sadness and self-pity, and I didn’t know which among the two possibilities was worse. But I did learn one lesson the hard way. And that lesson is “God knows best!”

        Teach me Your ways, O Lord! Doing a Jonah, refusing and rebelling, would lead to grief, not greatness. Instead, listening, obeying and doing as told leads to wisdom. Is there anything wiser than learn sooner, not later, that “the world in its present form is passing  away”? Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTION: When asked to do something that you don’t want, how do you respond?

Give me a humble and obedient heart, Lord, that I may follow Your leading, even if it’s hard for me to do.