Station 10
Jesus strips away my comfort.
I love guidelines and routine. It brings me comfort to know what is coming up and to prepare myself for the hours and days ahead. God had other plans for me for the third week of February. On that weekend, I took care of both my young daughters, on my own, for the first time ever. The guidelines I put in place all relied on having help from my wife, my family, or my friends. The routines I have created only take into consideration the needs of one daughter at a time. With both girls vying for my attention simultaneously, I had to learn to rely on Something within me I did not know existed. This Something is new to me, but Jesus had placed it in my being from the beginning and He was looking for a moment in my life to show me that it is there.
Now that the weekend has passed, I see that God was teaching me a valuable lesson: when who you think you are is taken away, who you truly are begins to shine. I am not the guidelines of my life. I am not the routine I have created. Those things are like a drop in the ocean of life God has created for me. Now that I am more aware of this new Something in my life, I realize there is so much more I am capable of and so much joy I have missed due to my self-created limitations.
Peter Khoa Nguyen
In what ways have I stifled my true potential for complacency? If I could let go of my comfort, where would God lead me?
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ