1. He totally ruined my day last Wednesday. Everything-I kid you not-EVERYTHING went wrong...because God scrapped my plans and said, "Here's what I want you to do instead..." Though I threw a childish fit about it, (hence, my screaming with fingernails image) He managed to get me to daily Mass (NOT part of the original plan), found me a perfect Bible verse for my troubles that day (Colossians 3:17), fixed said troubles, read my thoughts and literally answered them out loud through my good friend Emily, and ended this horribly humbling day with a surprise trip to a perpetual adoration chapel (those are few and far between in the KC area) where He stared me in the face and asked, "Will you let Me love you now?" Whoa.
2. A less comical example. Here I am in this picture, snoozing in THE Marian shrine of America, the largest Catholic Church in the country, the basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C.
We were there for the Pro-life vigil the night before the March for Life. With several other thousand people, we celebrated a 2 1/2 hour mass...which, of course, was awesome. We got there 2 hours early, long enough for a short nap, and we still had to sit downstairs, outside the crypt church, in the VERY back against the wall. We couldn't even see the TV showing us the altar. And there was little ole' me, a tiny speck in the midst of the largest peaceful protest in the nation...cat-napping in front of...well, God and everybody. My position inside that basilica was so perfectly illustrative of my part in the March.
“I am only one, but I am one.
I can't do everything, but I can do something.
The something I ought to do, I can do.
And by the grace of God, I will.”
-Edward Everett Hale
And I did. I was only one of 400,000 people-most of them born after the Roe Vs. Wade decision-to march on the Supreme Court building that day (See http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=111182). My own self disappeared and I joined in a cause that is bigger than all of us put together can even imagine. I was a just a miniscule part of the witness to a culture of life, to a deeper respect for my own humanity, to the call of a life completely open to God's grace and life-giving love. God's work is so perfect in the pro-life movement. As more and more and more people join in this fight, one person means (in a manner of speaking) less and less and less...the louder the testimony of this pilgrimage becomes, the more humbling it is. What a lesson God is teaching us! The more of us that fight for Christ, the more glory we bring Him and the more we-together with our brothers and sisters-build His Kingdom, the less glory we are able to take for ourselves. WHOA!
"Father God, we praise You and thank You for the virtue of humility. By becoming smaller, help us to see and enjoy and adore more of Your greatness. Amen."
"He must increase, I must decrease." -John 3:30
May you decrease, to make more room for God in your life!
SO...I totally needed to read this. Thank you for posting!!! I was reading up on Chelsea's blog, and saw your link, and I saw this post, so I read it. And really needed it. God bless you!! And may Mary hold you tight!!!! (btw, this is AnneMarie Hauge--don't want to creep you out by a random post) :D
ReplyDeleteI love all the side chapels at the Basillica. Did you have a favorite? I can't remember the name of it, but one of the chapels has a mosaic with people from all over the world coming to her. This was another that I liked even more, but my brain is failing me this early in the morning.
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