Streams of Mercy

As we make our journeys of life and faith, we grow and change. Very few of us see things exactly as we did a decade ago. As we learn more things, we develop new understandings, and we come to new ways of seeing things.

“I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that,” said Mother Teresa, “but now I pray that God will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.”

Her words speak to me in helpful ways. These last few years have been difficult for many of us, perhaps for all of us. Life just isn’t like it used to be; so much new information has come to light; so many things we’ve always accepted have been challenged; there’s so much happening in every area of life – it’s a struggle to keep up with it all.

I find myself asking God to help me see things in new ways, and one of God’s promises to us is that he will do just that! God is always at work making things new, redeeming, restoring and transforming. If God promises to be about doing that in all of life, surely he can help us to see things in our own individual lives - to see things in new ways- so that we can be a part of renewing all creation, instead of being stumbling blocks for one another along the way.

My prayer is that God will do that in your life and in mine and in the life of faith we share together – opening us to see things in new ways. Perhaps with God’s help we can come to see in new ways all that separates us from one another, and find some common ground in the differences that divide us. Remember Mother Teresa’s words: “I pray that God will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do … Prayer changes us and we change things.”

In every age, we see human resistance to new things, including the gospel that everything has become new. Years ago, when I was a beginning teacher, I had a little plaque on my desk of a little boy, with his head down on his desk, peeking up, and the words: “Be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet.” I believe that can be said of each of us. May God help us to be patient with one another, because God’s not finished with any one of us just yet.

Some days we just cannot see things ever being better than they are; some days God’s promises seem too far away ever to be realized; some days we’re ready to give in and to give up, to sink into the struggles of this world around us. On those such days, let us rest in the assurance that God is always at work making all things new, and helping us to see things in new ways. Let us ask God to show us what we need to be doing in our own lives, to be a part of the new things God is doing in all of life.

Elizabeth