When God Calls Your Bluff

Things are coming along slowly in the apartment.  It's just everything is happening all at once.  Not all of it is good.  A lot of it is bad, actually.

We've been in the valleys for going on two years now, despite our prayers.

When I think about why God may be giving us the cold shoulder (how it appears to poor, fallen me), I find myself saying something like, "I trust in You, God.  We need you to take care of us."

Then I remember my pitiful offering to do whatever He wants and to draw me closer to Him.  Supposing He were to take me up on the offer.  Supposing He is.  What if all this difficulty and suffering is just God trying to draw me closer, to force me to abandon all my control in the intoxication of His infinity?  

Don't I feel silly?  Here God is, calling my bluff.

Lucky for me (and everybody), He's not like that.  He's not just calling my bluff; His goal isn't to say to me, "Nah-nah-nah, you said you wanted to do this, but I knew you didn't really mean it, and now you know it too."

The baby sports his American flag t-shirt.

Instead, He takes my half-acknowledged consent--because all He needs is the slightest spark of desire as an invitation, He's that eager--and shuts things down one by one, until all that is left is me and Him, and we are forced to look at each other.

Abandonment is hard, though, because letting go of control is scary.




Speaking of not surrendering, the American bishops have designated the two weeks leading up to and including Independence Day as  a special time of prayer, study, and public action in order to fight against the prosecution of the Catholic Church inherent in but not limited to the HHS Mandate.

That's right.  We're going to Daddy.

If necessary, we will go down fighting.  Don't believe us?  Google the number of Catholic martyrs.

Won't you join us in this Fortnight for Freedom?