Small Steps Together: Hear Him well, Lest It be Lost

"The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost." –GK Chesterton

It is, without a doubt, the greatest lesson of my life--that every day is a gift and I'm created to see the sacred offering in even the ordinary days. He offers us each and every moment to fill as we will. And when we hold those moments as the precious, priceless gifts they are and fill them intentionally with the things of God, we truly live our lives.

It's really very simple.

So why do I mess it up so often? Why do I miss God in the moment and trash the gift? Why do I waste time? Why do I hurt the people I love? Why do I take an errant comment and make it an epic argument? Why do I act like a spoiled brat surrounded by way too much after a sugar-laden, way-too-many-people birthday party?

Because I forget that I am the daughter of a humble, heroic, awesome God.

It's so simple.

Why do I forget?

"True simplicity is like that of children, who think, speak, and act candidly and without craftiness. They believe whatever is told them; they have no care or thought for themselves, especially when with their parents; they cling to them, without going to seek their own satisfactions and consolations, which they take in good faith and enjoy with simplicity, without any curiosity about their causes and effects."--St. Francis de Sales

I want to walk in the light of God, to carry myself through my days in such a way that it is umistakable that I am His and He directs my paths. I want to be the child who believes what He tells me and then acts on that belief as naturally as I breathe the air. I want to remember that He is the good parent I so desperately need.

I want to go about my daily round serving the people He has entrusted to me, recognizing the places He wants me to go. I want this with all my heart--just to live the life He intends me to live.

I want to cling to Him.  Can I cling to Him?

Can I be selfless, caring not at all for my own satisfactions or consolations. Can I turn away from the affirmation of other people and seek only to know that I walk confidently in His will?

Will my life ever be that simple? Will it ever be the gift He intended?

Yes.

Yes!

I think it will.

But only if I can do that one thing. Only if I can fill myself with Him. Only if I can be the child who surrenders to Him completely and entrusts Him to care for me tenderly.The thing is--the simple, important thing is--I can't walk confidently with God throughout the day if I am not intimately acquainted with God and I can't be intimately acquainted with God without having His Word be the firm and gentle hand of a loving Father to which I cling.

Only if my day--my every moment--echoes with His Word. This is how I can know Him, in the Word and in the Sacrament. So that as I move through the world, in every corner of my home and the vast expanses of the marketplace, God goes with me. I hear Him in the Hours that punctuate the phrases of my day; I hear Him in the words of the daily Mass-- a familiar cadence of Scripture; I hear Him as I cultivate new habits; as I listen while I fold, and wipe, and cook; as I deliberately hide Him in my heart.

It's simple, really. When I hear Him well, when I hear Him always, I live the gift.

Did you take small steps towards simplicity this week? How has Small Steps blessed, challenged you, encouraged you on your journey? Would you share your thoughts with us, let us find you and walk with you? I'd be so grateful and so honored to have you as a companion.