The other day I had to go out. I got in the car and
started to drive down the road. There was almost no
traffic at all. And a very strange feeling came over me.
I can’t accurately describe it. It was a feeling I had
experienced a bit, off and on, for several days. A
feeling of being lost, or perhaps like being on a
different planet, living in another world, a strange
world, a world that looked the same but was very, very
different from the world I was living in last week. Then
I realized I wasn’t paying close attention to how I was
driving because I was caught up in this feeling of
strangeness, hesitancy, fogginess. I forced myself to
focus on what I was doing. It was a very bizarre, and a
very uncomfortable and disturbing frame of mind and
attitude.
Thinking about that later, I began to realize a simple
truth. Jesus Christ is not so much at the center of my
life as I thought He was. Because if He were truly at
the center of my life any place where I am can be my
home, and in any world that I might live in, He is still
present there. No matter what else may change in my
life, He is still the Lord. No matter what may come to
me today, whether good or bad or unexpected, Jesus is
still my Savior and only my lasting hope is in Him Who
will never fail. I had thought my life was more solidly
based in Christ, but I realize it was more centered on a
way of seeing the world the way I thought it should be.
I was operating on what I was sure I understood. I was
more focused on routines and normal circumstances, the
way things ought to go—I was more focused on the way I
thought the world should be than I was on the truth that
Jesus Christ is Lord, and He is here with me. I took
some comfort in believing that I pretty much knew today
what would happen tomorrow, more than I did in trusting
my today and my tomorrow to the Lord. Whatever may come.
If you remember, some weeks ago I was talking about
finding more times to remember God and pray throughout
the day, and as an example I mentioned the practice of
praying every time you get into the car, before driving
off. Well, I started to do that. But it didn’t last for
more than a few attempts and then I completely forgot
about it. Because when you get in the car and you start
off thinking about where you are going, and what you
need to do and all those other items that are filling
your mind and your life at the present time. And then
for me, as so often happens, I get into the practice of
judging the driving skills of other people, and, my dear
friends, it is not a pretty picture. But we’re all doing
our business, we’re all following our routines. So, I
have been thinking how much better my “strange
sensation” car trip would have been the other day if I
had stopped to pray before I turned the key in the
ignition; if I had stopped to remember that the Lord is
with me. He has, in the past, helped me to practice
charity toward other drivers, even though He still has a
lot of work to do there yet. But I need to continue to
struggle against so many of the old habits and routines
I use to create my own world and change them into habits
and routines where I more clearly see that Jesus Christ
is Lord, and He is Lord for me, really and truly, in
this world.
We can see how easy it is in our own self-created worlds
to be shaken up and turned around. But if Jesus is truly
at the center of my life, no world is foreign to me, and
there is no place I cannot call home. We hear in the
Gospel today, the apostles fighting and working to gain
future honors, when the very Son of God is standing
right in front of them. They didn’t see reality. And
perhaps we can miss it as well.
I went to the grocery store yesterday morning to pick up
a few things and I noticed all the cans of soup were
gone. Gone! Even “Cream of Leek.” Gone! This made me
wonder if people were really reading the labels, or just
grabbing cans off the shelf in some kind of soup frenzy.
The whole soup shelf area was empty, except, EXCEPT, for
about 25 cans of my favorite Lenten soups, Progresso
“Lentil Soup” and Progresso “Lentil Soup with roasted
vegetables.” I kid you not! About 25 cans! The only soup
cans left. I only picked up one can, confident there
would be more there the next time I went back. But even
if they are all gone, the Lord is still with me. And
that’s the truth I need to press more deeply into my
thoughts, my actions and even my prayers.
So dear friends, I ask you today to think about what or
who is at the center of your lives. What or who will
keep you confident, hopeful, trusting and charitable?
What or who will guide your life in the coming days? And
I ask you to let it be Christ.