Lenten Reflection - Dynamic Catholic

March 1, 2021

The First Surrender

When I first started making prayer a part of my daily life, in the beginning, I would pray, I would have clarity about my day and my life. I loved that, and I would come back again the next day and pray. And those first few weeks were fairly smooth sailing and a time of great joy and great peace and great clarity in my life. But a few weeks into it, I found myself in a place where we find ourselves very often in life, and that is with a decision to make. I had to make a decision. I didn't know what to do. And I remember one morning, I'm walking to school, I stop in the back of church and used to sit way down the back, and I just remember saying to God, "Listen, God, I got a problem here. I got a situation here." And I remember describing the situation to God in just a conversation, just like you talk to a friend. This is the situation. These are the circumstances. This was what's going on. This is how it came to be. And then, unconsciously, I just tripped over this monumental question of the spiritual life, and I said to God, "God, what do you think I should do?" And it seems like just such an ordinary question, but it is a question that will change your life. God, what do you think I should do?
It's interesting because we make a lot of choices in our lives. We make a lot of decisions in our lives. And when we have a bigger decision to make we usually seek counsel from people in our lives. What's interesting and tragic, is that we usually seek counsel from just about everyone who knows just about nothing about just about nothing compared to the Advisor that we leave on the bench in our lives. And that advisor is God, who knows everything about everything, whose got all the answers to all of our questions, but very often we don't consult him. We let him sit on the bench while we're talking to family and friends and colleagues and asking them for their advice. And Jesus is sitting on the bench and saying, "Put me in the game. I got the answers. I can help you. I want to help you. I want to help you make the best decision possible. I want to help you make the right choice."
And so I stumbled upon this question: God, what do you think I should do? What do you think I should do? I don't know about you, but I've got a decision I need to make in my life right now. Most of the time we do. You've got a question that's preoccupying your heart right now. How are you going to deal with that question? How you going to wrestle with that decision? And who's going to be your best advisor to help you make the right choice, to help you make the best decision?
And so today I just want to invite you to give that question a place in your life. Just turn to your God, sit with your God, step into the classroom of silence, and say, "God, what do you think I should do?" In this situation, in this relationship, in my career, with the rest of my life. God, what do you think I should do with the rest of my life? Because that question will take you on amazing adventures.