Schedule ~ April 2023

During times of relative ease and minimal labour, we submit to the will of God often without a second thought. However, when it comes to matters of heavier importance – the loss of money, honour, health – here we see do-nothingness, contradictions, and a great insubordination of the human will. In such situations, we encounter our true desires or lack of desires. Why do we, weak ones, vainly battle against our circumstances? The will of God abides forever and will abide forever, like a high mountain. We cannot put it to ourselves, but it will rather pull us to itself. Would we not laugh if someone were to tie a ship to a cliff, expecting the ship to move it? Instead, the ship would merely come closer to the cliff. Our foolishness is no less laughable if we, being dependent on God’s will, try obstinately to pull God’s will toward ourselves, wanting it to submit to us, and not the other way around.

                                 ~St. John of Tobolsk, The Sunflower: Conforming the Will of Man to the Will of God