It seems like people want everything yesterday, in our world. We give up on making a change because it doesn’t happen quick enough or the way we want it to. Many people who deal with depression and anxiety and many mental health problems struggle with this; I suspect that we all do. We think we should be a certain way. We have a tape running through our minds: I should be perfect, I should be happy, I am weak and cannot change, I am not good enough or worthy enough of change, if I change, then people will expect too much of me and I will fail…..and the list continues. This line of thinking is what makes us blind, lame, deaf and certain parts of our hearts dead. We get trapped in our own thinking and put ourselves down and then feel there is no hope. We feed ourselves the line of: I am too old, not smart enough, why bother, I don’t want to even though I know I need to. I must do it all myself.
Isaiah reminds us that the work of change is not ours; it is God’s. We only need to say yes to Him everyday of our lives. The signs of the kingdom that he writes about are already with us, if we let God in.
Only God can “ Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak.” Only God can say to those who hearts are frightened: “Be strong, fear not!”
Where do you think John the Baptist got the strength to confront the leaders of his day? Certainly not from himself; He was on fire with his love of God and his mission to proclaim the coming of the One who will transform the world into the Kingdom of God. Notice that the proof Jesus sends to him is not his preaching; but the testimony of the works he is doing. Jesus will be proclaimed to the world today by the work we do in His name and by the our witness that He alone is shaping and molding us into living signs of the Kingdom.
Take a couple of minutes right now and ask God to show you what he wants to heal so that you can be a sign of his kingdom. Allow Him to show you what fears he can help you deal with; where you need strength and peace. Let God show you and me the sin that needs to be forgiven. May each of us then ask for the grace to let God work within us and transform us into the person He calls us to be. Remember though, whatever God want to change in you and me will not happen today, but it will happen in God’s time. Today is only the beginning, if we want it to be. Remember the words of St James: “You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand”.
The Lord is coming, in fact he is already here. May our hearts be open to him right here and now.
