Calling No.245 - Wrestling With Our Faith To Fulfil Our True Potential
Many humans will experience days when they have a bit of a “faith wobble.” (It can sometimes happen to parrots as well). And it’s on these days that Jesus can seem a long way away, and you find yourself asking lots of “why” questions. Questions along the lines of ‘Why is life so full of menace and threat?’ ‘If there is a Divine Creator, why does He allow natural disasters or accidents to take place?’ Or ‘Why are some of us in this world far less fortunate than others?’ Jesus promised that He would always be with us (Matthew 28:20b), but sometimes He can seem to be an awfully long way away.
So when this happens, is it a sign that our faith is weak or floundering? Or is our inner wrestling a necessary part of our individual faith journey? Well, being something of an Einstein in the parrot world, I believe that we all have to go through times of questioning and doubt to allow us to emerge on the other side with a far deeper faith than we would otherwise have had. Because certainty keeps us skimming along on the surface of life whereas doubt will take us deep down to the very foundations of our existence and being. It’s only when we’ve been on this journey that we begin to see through the ways of the world and to understand what really matters. During His time on Earth, Jesus shone a light on this, and since then, some of the greatest humans have done the same; people like William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa and Corrie ten Boon. The world needs humans that can see beyond their income, their possessions, their appearance, their status and their power. Because it’s only when we’ve been on a journey and emerge on the other side that we truly find God and see what really matters.
I have to begrudgingly admit that humans are the most complex and sophisticated of all creatures living here on the face of our planet, and yet they carry the most unfulfilled potential. And that makes them rather like a parrot’s egg that never quite manages to hatch. The human world seems to encourage shallowness rather than depth. This feathery Einstein will tell you that money, beauty, possessions and lifestyle are nothing more than a thin veneer masking a lack of substance. Only a journey of faith with all of its ups and downs can provide the depth, the firm foundation and the solid wisdom that we all need to fulfil our true potential. And what’s the end goal? Well, finding God and reaching Heaven. That’s when we all achieve our full potential! And no one said that the journey would be easy….
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.”
(Pope John XXiii: [1881-1963] Head of the Catholic Church 1958-1963)
“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity.”
(Marie Curie: [1867-1934] Polish and naturalised French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research into radioactivity)
“There is no heavier burden than an unfulfilled potential.”
(Charles M. Schultz: [1922-2000] American cartoonist who created the comic strip ‘Peanuts’)
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
