Facing Challenges

This week’s readings describe answers to prayer as well as future hope and challenges. In many ways we will find them challenging because they are distant from our lived experiences. Yet, when we look more deeply, there is a message that emerges. This message is that despite life’s difficulties and threats, God seems to make a way where there seems to be no way.

The reading we hear from Mark’s gospel certainly addresses this idea of facing challenges. We are told that the earth will be in chaos. Wars will abound and fear will be great. Yet, it seems that this upheaval is just the prelude to a new creation. “Don’t be afraid,” so says Mark. “God will be at work in the future to bring new life.”

So perhaps this is a story about spiritual growth. We may feel unsettled; our world may turn upside down as a result of some new

insight. It might just be that God is working for good, but we have to go

through the process and trust that God will bring something beautiful out of the crises we experience.