Thursday, April 16, 2009

I have come to the conviction that if we live alone, it is our vocation. If we suffer from loneliness, it is our calling, to be carried until God says otherwise, because I firmly believe that in our loneliness, while we are called to be single, we are of far better use to the Kingdom of God than if we were no longer in that state. God calls us to be married, because then we are of far more use to His Kingdom than if we remain single. To constantly chafe at either state, and attempt to escape at whatever cost the barren loneliness one feels as a single person, or to escape what one might feel is a loveless or constrictive marriage, cheats us of the grace God desires to pour out in our lives, and prevents us from using that very struggle and pain for the betterment of the world, and the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.

2 comments:

ali said...

this is exciting dan, you are a saint in the making.
i think it was st theresa of avila once said to God
"If this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies"

Dan said...

That makes me think of a quote from Graham Greene's The End of the Affair: "God has more mercy, and then I came out of the church and saw the crucifix they have there, and I thought, of course, he's got mercy, only it's such an odd sort of mercy, it sometimes looks like punishment."

We're all being made into saints...slowly, but surely, and in God's ways and in his timing. For me, it's one thing to have convictions--it's another thing to live as if I truly believe them. That's the hardest part of all, but I think believing always comes before doing. Hopefully I can live out my convictions more fully, but realizing that I will only be able to do so through the Grace of God.

God's blessing on you Ali!