A Big YES

“A Big YES”
Lent 2009 – Day 6 (Mar 3)

By Deshi Ramadhani, SJ

One of my favorite photos of my childhood is the one showing my Dad and me. I had just accidentally bumped my head on a wall (you know, reckless kid). It hurt and I wept loudly. My Dad immediately ran to me, embraced me tightly, lifted me, and held me close to his chest. I was actually big enough to receive that unexpectedly special care. The photo tells a lot. I was weeping and shyly looked at the camera (please don’t laugh if you look at my forehead in that photo), while my Dad was smiling, looking at me, and pointing his finger to the camera. Every time I look at it, I can hear all kinds of encouraging words: It’s OK. Don’t worry. Take courage… Now in my forties, I believe that what my Dad did was simply showing his trust in me. He showed me that within my body as a boy, he already saw a man who can cope with any challenges in life.

God has trust in me. Through Isaiah, we hear that any words coming from God’s mouth will never fail to do God’s will. It’s so amazing. What a trust! First, there is trust in the power of God’s own words, but secondly, there is also trust in our human ability to receive those very words. Knowing how fragile we are, humanly speaking, God should never have any trusts whatsoever in us. That’s not the case with God I believe in. God trusts me, because God sees me as a good person, even if right now my life is in such a mess. Whenever I bumped my head on a wall because of my recklessness in life, God will just smile and invite me to look ahead. Yes, there is hope for me, because God has trust in me.

Jesus challenges his disciples. Many people believe that they should add more and more words in their prayers in order to make God hear. This is so humiliating for God. After all, God is the all-knowing. We sometimes do this because we don’t trust God. We have a serious doubt about God’s sincerity in loving us. To counter this we are taught not only to let God do whatever God wants. We pray “your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” By saying this, we beg that heaven and earth shall meet. What a bold prayer. To put it simply, I pray that God’s trust will embrace my distrust. So whenever I ask myself “Will I ever become a better person?” the answer is a big YES. And guess what? That big YES comes faster from God’s mouth than from ours. This is indeed good news for you and me.