dual personalities

On Monday I had an interesting experience at work. A man whom I had known many years before at the church I used to attend showed up at my office, interested in offering a course here at my flyover institute. We chatted about it and then our conversation moved into more personal territory as we brought each other up to date on our children’s activities.

It turns out that he and his wife are very concerned about their youngest child, a son, whose story, as he told me of his trials, sounded a lot like our own boy, even to the college in Ohio, playing sports and DUIs. He seemed to be heartened by my telling him of the boy’s progress after years of parental teeth gnashing and hand wringing.

So I told him it had all turned around for me when I surrendered it all (and the boy) to God. I had done the best I could, but he was a man and needed to figure it out for himself. The time had passed for his parents coming to his rescue. I couldn’t go on giving him motherly advice and then being upset when he didn’t follow it. And I prayed for him (and for all my children) without ceasing.

For me then (and now) the key is to actually trust God to take care of the things that are out of my hands anyway. Although we are parents for the rest of our lives, we only are stewards of our children’s well being for a very short time.

We talked for over an hour, and when he left, he hugged me and said something about feeling that God had led him to come see me and we chuckled because we are, after all, liberal Episcopalians. God works in mysterious ways and all that.

But I believe it. Help thou mine unbelief.

Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.

–Ralph Waldo Emerson