Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the acclaimed 1970’s book by Richard Bach
tells the story of a seagull who wants to be more than just a seagull searching
for food on fishing boats. He wants to fly far and wide. After much work, he
discovers, “How much more there is now to living! Instead of
our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to life!
We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of
excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!”
The same is true of our journey
of faith. We cannot live a life open and dedicated to God’s will without
practice. We have to be willing to be open to new experiences and step outside
the box. We each have ‘boxes’ that we use to identify who we are and what our
ministry is. Just maybe God has something better planned and we have to quit
the ‘drab slogging back and forth to the fishing boats.’ That’s why during
June, I’ll be looking at what it means to ‘abandon’ myself to God.
There are two types of definition
for the word “abandon.” One is to leave completely, desert or withdraw from and
give up control. That is certainly one way of viewing what happens when we
abandon ourselves to God like Charles de Foucauld suggests in his Prayer of
Abandonment. The other
definition is equally apt: to yield without restraint or moderation and give
over to natural impulses (like joy or grief or life or God’s Call).
Few of us like to give up
control of our lives or desert our plans. Sometimes, God calls us to change
direction. Moses was called from being shepherd to lead the people of Israel,
so was David. Mary was called from being a provincial teenage girl to the
Mother of our Lord. Each of them had to abandon their plans and dreams.
However, in answering the Spirit’s call, they also discovered a life that was
totally and without moderation Abandoned to the joy of living and being “a
man/woman after God’s heart.”
Yes, we are called to Abandon,
to Renounce, to Yield to God’s call, but it is in that very yielding that we
find Freedom. Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull discovered ‘we can be free…to
fly!’ Answering God’s call to Abandon ourselves can provide us with, as
Jonathan says, "the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now,
and nothing can stand in your way."
Think about what boxes you have
put around yourself. Do you identify yourself as ‘mom’ or ‘teacher’ or ‘PTA president’ or ‘manager’ or ‘administrator’? Are there boxes of your past that you still have around that need to be emptied? Can you find the courage to get out of the box and let God act?
Next time we’ll start exploring
Foucauld’s Prayer of Abandonment. How can we more and more fully say “I am a
Child of God, fully abandoned to God’s will for my life”?
