Often times, we live life, reminding ourselves to be patient, to be loving, to have trust and to carry faith that God will reveal the answers to our prayers. And then every moment and every day seems to be a waiting game, where we live in sensitivity (but hopefully not over-sensitivity) to how the Lord is beginning to unveil the answers before our eyes. But the more I live out each day here in Israel, the more I’m beginning to see that answered prayers go beyond that. In the past few weeks, we kept sharing about how simply being here is an answered prayer to the four of us… that since January, this is what we’ve been waiting for. But hearing about how it’s been different in the community here, and even seeing and hearing about the difficulties that envelop the lives of those who live here, I realized that…
ANSWERED PRAYERS and the “WAIT” that encompasses around it are one in the same.
There is always a prayer, waiting to be completely answered. And as God continues to reveal them to us, the typical thing to hear is “wait patiently,” “pray with patience,” but what I didn’t completely realize is that as we wait for our answered prayers, the reason why there may be a wait in the first place is not just because it’s not time for us, but because it MIGHT be time for someone else. In the time we “WAIT”, maybe – just maybe – we are being called to be someone else’s answered prayer. If we are one community and one family in the Spirit of Christ, then wouldn’t it make sense that our prayers and the timelines of our answers might also intertwine… in ONENESS and in UNITY?
I realize now, more than ever, that in the joy surrounding my life here, in the wait, I must also be firm in my faith and steadfast in the selfless love of the Lord to be sensitive to the ways He might be calling to use me as an answered prayer to those around me…
…as a missionary,
…as a daughter,
…as a sister (also in Christ),
…as a friend,
…as a woman of God…
…to be a vessel in completing the Lord’s vision of ONENESS as ONE LIVING COMMUNITY in all the ways He has called me to be. And as each prayer is answered, I must never forget that when it comes to God, there is never a moment He is not using us. Whether it is for ourselves or for those around us, every moment is an opportunity to grow in our YES’s to the Lord. Every moment is answered prayer.
Lord God, I simply have one prayer tonight… may You always protect my YES to You in Everything and with Everything…
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us,
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us,
Holy Family, pray for us.
AMEN.