In early July, this year, we were notified as a neighborhood that parking on the roadside in front of our homes, would not be permitted in early August. The State authority on the Road Maintenance was letting us know way in advance on what was about to happen. They were repaving our roads! Yeay! We were happy! We started looking around, planned, tried to fit all cars in the driveway and finally figured that out well. We were happy to be all panned and ready to see the road paved! After all, it had now been a while that our little neighborhood's road was scraped, washed and paved. We were expecting visitors in the third week of the August and we could not wait to have them, share with them our home and why not brag a bit on how cute and quiet this neighborhood is and how peaceful is and also how smooth our (soon to be paved ) road is.
Well as time passed, and as with any government project, it took a while.
Our guests came and went , only to see and experience the badly shaped road, which had been scraped by then. They were all stopped and detoured, went through all the cones, all unmarked pavements and all the working signs. They did not mind it, it seemed, and we pretended to be okay with it, though I wished it had been a smoother road for them.
After they had gone , every day I drove around our neighborhood, I could not help but experience the impatience, the inconvenience, the effects of the bumps, the uneven roads and the long wait of "stop"- "slow" signs. I always felt bad that our guests whom we had not seen for more than ten years had to experience that as well. I felt pain, a bit of anger, impatience and of course my vanity was having a feast. As I tried to rid myself off these feelings, I decided to add a prayer so I could shorten my chain of my inner complaints about the scrapped roads , the bumps, the delays, the inconvenience, the impatience associated with it. It then occurred to me that the road would not be well paved afterwards if it didn't go through all this "cleansing" process. It needed the signs, the scrapping, the washing, the sealing....
And then I thought about the soul, our human soul. Our soul goes through the same process too. All those bumps that we encounter in our spiritual life, are to slow us down to make us consider the road ahead of us. All of those "stop" and "slow" signs in our life are to remind us to navigate carefully in what we do and how we do it. All that scraping and the discomfort that comes with it, is the examination of conscience and the anxiety in the long line at confession. All that uncomfortable shaking during a rough road is like our lifelong sacrifices. And our visitors witnessing our messy road but our cheerful home it is the perfect symbol of friends seeing you when you are at your lowest point, because it is in "when I am weak that I am strong "(ct from 2 Cor. 12)
Finally our road was paved and it is a pleasure now to drive....
That I thought in the spiritual life is like the grace we receive as a reward of all those sacrifices, all those bumps and detours, all those moments of feeling bad and especially the grace we receive after a good confession. It is indeed powerful and beautiful, we become brand new, just like my neighborhood road, it is brand new !
So any time we see "Stop", "Bump", " Rough Road Ahead" "Slow down"
Let us not forget:
"Newly Paved Road", "Reconciliation and Grace" is also waiting ahead of us if we navigate those other signs correctly and patiently.
By Merita B. McCormack
August 29, 2015
Well as time passed, and as with any government project, it took a while.
Our guests came and went , only to see and experience the badly shaped road, which had been scraped by then. They were all stopped and detoured, went through all the cones, all unmarked pavements and all the working signs. They did not mind it, it seemed, and we pretended to be okay with it, though I wished it had been a smoother road for them.
After they had gone , every day I drove around our neighborhood, I could not help but experience the impatience, the inconvenience, the effects of the bumps, the uneven roads and the long wait of "stop"- "slow" signs. I always felt bad that our guests whom we had not seen for more than ten years had to experience that as well. I felt pain, a bit of anger, impatience and of course my vanity was having a feast. As I tried to rid myself off these feelings, I decided to add a prayer so I could shorten my chain of my inner complaints about the scrapped roads , the bumps, the delays, the inconvenience, the impatience associated with it. It then occurred to me that the road would not be well paved afterwards if it didn't go through all this "cleansing" process. It needed the signs, the scrapping, the washing, the sealing....
And then I thought about the soul, our human soul. Our soul goes through the same process too. All those bumps that we encounter in our spiritual life, are to slow us down to make us consider the road ahead of us. All of those "stop" and "slow" signs in our life are to remind us to navigate carefully in what we do and how we do it. All that scraping and the discomfort that comes with it, is the examination of conscience and the anxiety in the long line at confession. All that uncomfortable shaking during a rough road is like our lifelong sacrifices. And our visitors witnessing our messy road but our cheerful home it is the perfect symbol of friends seeing you when you are at your lowest point, because it is in "when I am weak that I am strong "(ct from 2 Cor. 12)
Finally our road was paved and it is a pleasure now to drive....
That I thought in the spiritual life is like the grace we receive as a reward of all those sacrifices, all those bumps and detours, all those moments of feeling bad and especially the grace we receive after a good confession. It is indeed powerful and beautiful, we become brand new, just like my neighborhood road, it is brand new !
So any time we see "Stop", "Bump", " Rough Road Ahead" "Slow down"
Let us not forget:
"Newly Paved Road", "Reconciliation and Grace" is also waiting ahead of us if we navigate those other signs correctly and patiently.
By Merita B. McCormack
August 29, 2015
Merita
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