For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. // Galatians 5:1
Every day was laborious, tiresome, and altogether just dry. It seemed as if I had been wandering in the desert for weeks, months, even years. Many days it felt as if I was trying to push an eighteen wheeler with a toothpick. Despite many attempts at solving the problems at hand, the weight of it all got heavier and heavier. Where was this abundant life that had been promised? Where was this freedom I have preached about time and time again? What about the easy yoke? What am I doing wrong? I kept asking myself.
As I sat in a chapel after another exhausting day, I asked the Lord that same question: What am I doing wrong, Jesus? His answer floored me as He responded by giving me a mental image. There I was under the yoke with Him, but trying to go at a way faster pace than His. I was choking. My yoke, My speed, He said to me. I knew what He meant. I needed to seriously slow down. Through my busyness and my good desire to serve in His Kingdom, I had taken my eyes off of Him and lost the pace and speed that He wanted for me. I had not heeded Christ’s offering of freedom, as Saint Paul talks about in today’s First Reading (Galatians 5:1), and I became a slave to my own timing and to my own pace.
Sister, even our good desires to serve the Lord can put us under a yoke of slavery when we don’t discern His will for us. If you are feeling burned out or tired, ask Him to show you where in the yoke you are with Him. Are you trying to head in the opposite direction? Are you going in the right way but perhaps too quickly? Are you digging your heels to not go forward? He wants your freedom. He knows the pace and the direction you need. Will you let Him show you what that looks like today?
Mariana Pimiento is a Colombia-born storyteller and artist. She enjoys big dinners with her Colombian family, talking about Theology of the Body, and any chance for a bonfire. The preaching Dominican friars brought her back to the Catholic faith while a student in New York City. Mariana served several years as a FOCUS missionary and now continues college ministry work in Nashville. Find out more about her here.
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