No Mail

no mail

When I visited my mom recently in her new senior living community, I noticed this sign next to the mailboxes: “Mail is not here” with a big red X (see picture above). The sign made me chuckle since I can only imagine how many times people must have asked the staff, “Is the mail here?” before a sign like this went up. When the mail does come, a different sign that says, “Mail is here” with a big green check mark is set out.

We are creatures of habit, and getting the mail is an important part of a person’s daily routine, to be sure. But we are also an impatient people. We want our mail sooner than later. And we are a people who like to be in control, and we are not at all in control of when the mail comes each day.

These tendencies play themselves out in our faith journeys well. How often do we develop routines of faith, praying only at certain times, for instance, or sitting in the same pew at church or attending the same service each week. Theses are not bad routines in and of themselves, but if they prevent us from growing in our faith or being open to other schedules or opportunities, then we need to say, “No!” to the over-routined life of faith.

As for being impatient, we know well how impatient we are just having to wait in the doctor’s office or having to watch for a pot to boil. It is hard, then, for us to comprehend how long God’s people waited for a Savior to be born. Yet patience is required as we look toward our Lord’s return. So we must say, “No!” to impatience.

Needless to say, we don’t have much control over anything in life, so thinking that we do can be detrimental to us. That is why it is important for us to remember what St. Paul told us, “You ought to say, ’If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that‘” (James 4:15). It is helpful for us to say, “No!” to any attempt to try to have control over our lives, turning whatever will happen over to God.

In the end, God has a plan, he has a message to bring and he will deliver it in his time. What a day that will be when Jesus returns to say, “I am here!”

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