This week on the Raised Catholic podcast, we’ll finish up my short series on takeaways from a recent retreat experience. I’ll tell the personal story of the heavy concerns I brought with me to my retreat house, and how I had to lay them down and open my hands to whatever God is doing, trusting in him and his timing and his plans even when I can’t see.
We all have times like this, don’t we? When we want to see how things will turn out, or what will happen in the future. I don’t know about you, but God doesn’t tend to give me these plans in advance, even when I really want them. He is not a God of guarantees. Faith is a journey, not a contract, I know, and as I get older and see his faithfulness, I find I can open my hands more and more to what he has for me.
As we move closer to a whole new year, one with so many question marks, what are you bringing to God that you might need to lay down? What hopes do you have for the new year in your life, your family, the church, the country and the world? Can we trust his timing and his plan, even if it doesn’t look like what we thought?
Listen to Raised Catholic ep. 155: Retreat Takeaways: Bells, Time and Open Hands on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts (or read the transcript), and let’s talk about it back here in the comments. As we move toward Christmas, my deepest prayer for you and me is that we will welcome Jesus in in all the places we need him most - our hearts, in our people, in his church and in our troubled world. Oh God, we need him and oh, how he loves us. Merry Christmas!