As November draws to an end, I look over all the major events that have happened, both good and bad. One event I know that every person has heard of are the terroristic attacks. When I say those words, I’m sure Paris instantly comes to mind for mostly everyone, but did you know there were more attacks than there were days in the month of November? There are many things that we are clueless of, being we usually only hear of what’s being reported on the news. Which it’s truly disheartening all of the tragedies that get left out. There are children being murdered for wanting an education and attending school, and I was completely oblivious to this until maybe a few months ago.
Our world is going through an unimaginably terrifying time, in many ways, in many places. Drought, terrorist attacks as before mentioned, famine, poverty and debt, natural disasters. I didn’t seem to acknowledge that the United States isn’t the only country going through trouble before recently, and when put into perspective learning all that I have lately, compared to other countries, we’re pretty dang lucky to be where we’re at. Going through these hardships, it seems an easy time to lose hope. You don’t know what’s going to follow up, whether it’ll be a miraculous recovery, or if it’s only going to get worse. I don’t know about you, but I personally felt useless to all these problems, thinking “What am I able to do to help in situations this big?”
It’s funny how God seems to always have perfect timing. While fighting with my mind on whether I’m big enough to make a change, or too small to be noticed, God handed me the answer. I opened my laptop this morning, and I saw I had an e-mail of the daily reading for December 1st from a catholic website I subscribed to earlier before. The first thought that went through my head was that it was annoying how many of these e-mails I was getting and questioning why I gave them my e-mail address in the first place. God didn’t seem to think that was too amusing. I got a feeling in my mind telling me I needed to give it a chance today, so I did, and that was probably one of the best decisions I've had in a while.
The reading gave insight to a couple questions my mind had been wondering. The first being, what does the world do during a time like this, how do we recover? The second was, what do I do? In the reading, it contains a story of a tree, a very old tree, that was chopped down and left to rot. The stump that was left did not die though, it produced a new shoot, which sprouted the promise of a new tree, a new beginning. The new tree will grow to produce many baskets of fruit and give shade to all of those in need. It also quotes a lot of how God will be judging the people of our world, and how we should not judge, but treat each other as equals.
I found the answer for my questions in the analogy used for the new tree sprout. The tree stump, representing our world, “rotting.” Although this new tree will take a long time to grow and prosper, there will be a new beginning, looking to overcome the past struggles. What this reading was truly supposed to be representing was advent and the coming of Jesus to earth in time of need, but I also see it as it applies to today too. Our world is in desperate need right now of support and guidance. The rotting tree stump produced an even more capable tree, the people just needed patience to wait for it to reach it’s full potential. I feel as if we can keep our faith through the turmoil of our days, there is a new era waiting for us, but we have to do just that. Keep our faith. Keep praying. Keep hope in better times. Anything is possible through prayer. Answers will be sent to all those in need of them. God is always standing by us, no matter how cruel things seem to be getting, he is with us waiting and working for the consent of the sin, and I believe that is how a small person can make a big change, with God by their side.
Another big lesson I learned out of the small reading was to not harbor hate for the people responsible for all of the attacks. Something that is a lot easier said than done, but at the least is possible. They are being tempted by the devil, as we all have, but the devil is winning with them. What they are in need of most right now are our prayers, a lot of them. Say rosaries in intentions for them or offer your mass intentions for them, do everything you can to shine the light of our God onto them. It also says in the reading that, “Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.” I feel as though if we want to follow in his footsteps as much as possible, we must not only see hope for ourselves and community, but also for the people who afflicted the hard times upon us. Hope that things get better for them too, not only ourselves and the people we love around us.
After all of that, I hope to inspire the small part that everyone has inside them that says we are able to make a difference in this world for good and work toward putting everyone on the right path to working for God day by day, letting him take complete control over our thoughts and actions. Please take any fire you have to better this world and put it to good use for everyone is capable of exceptional things, it’s just the matter of using our talents for the right purposes. Anything is possible with the right mindset.
"For I know the plans I have for you. declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." — Jeremiah 29:11
"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." — Jeremiah 29:12-13
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