This happened to me last summer but I just remembered/ thought about it recently. Last summer one of my main efforts was to find a teaching job for the fall. I applied everywhere and then I waited and worried. I checked my email/phone/mailbox a million times a day hopping to hear something. I searched for new postings obsessively. There were times that I was depressed and anxious about not having a job yet but most of all I was frustrated with the waiting. At times I found it hard to enjoy other things while I was waiting. At times I found it hard to pray because I was so preoccupied with waiting to here something. Well the summer went on. I had plenty of interviews and did end up getting a job.
Then just last week I went to 12 noon daily mass. As I was leaving and walking through the parking lot I turned my phone back on and I had a message. As I sat in my hot car in the church parking lot listening to the message and quickly returning the call it felt strangely familiar.
I thought back to listening to messages from prospective jobs in my hot car in the church parking lot after daily mass last summer. Looking back I realized that quite a few times as I turned on my phone as I left daily mass last summer I found a message from a school wanting an interview or more information.
I would spend all morning worrying and anxious. Then I would put all of my worrying aside to attend 12 noon daily mass. As I would walk through the parking lot into mass I would shut off my phone. I would spend 20 minutes in daily mass and then as I would walk back through the parking lot to my car I would turn my phone back on. It happened more than once that this was when I received the news that I had been waiting for all day.
It was when I turned myself to the Lord and away from worrying during mass that he answered my prayers. I received the Lord during mass and I also received the phone calls that I had been waiting for.
Although I may have many other important things on my mind and on my schedule, I have to remember to always find time for the Lord. Nothing else will work out correctly if we don’t find time for him.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.
Joining in with Soli Deo Gloria
