Take care you remain calm and do not fear; do not let your courage fail. // Isaiah 7:4a
I’d never gotten out of bed so quickly in my life. We were supposed to be at the airport by 7:30 am, it was already 7! I was leaving to enter the Dominican Sisters, and after a late night of melancholy and last-minute packing, we all missed our alarms!
In a total panic, we dressed, threw my luggage in the car, and sped off to the airport. Dad drove, Mom rode shotgun, and I hyperventilated in the back seat.
Halfway to the airport the hyperventilation nearly turned to cardiac arrest when I realized my flight was an hour earlier than I had thought. Needless to say, an already emotional day notched up as I burst into nervous tears.
My mom’s soothing preschool teacher voice broke through, “Hon, are you meant to be in Ann Arbor today?” I responded with doubt in my mind but unwavering confidence in my heart, “YES!”
Since that day seventeen years ago, Mom and I have come clean about our true feelings that morning: she was ready to be sick on the car floor and I made that confident yes with no clue how or why I was doing what I was about to do!
What we both had was faith. Even if we were both scared, nervous, emotional . . . basically experiencing just about every emotion under the sun, deep down we knew God’s will was happening in that moment. We didn’t know why, or how the future was going to play out, we just knew that we had to accept the crazy of the moment and trust God would take care of the details. As always, He does.
Sister, sometimes life throws us curve balls and our best laid plans are thrown into disarray. We think we’ve done everything right only to see it seemingly fall apart.
Wherever it is you find yourself questioning today, take courage in the Lord’s promise, have faith that His plan is at work. “Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail, and remember His promise, “[He] upholds his city for ever” (Responsorial Psalm 48:8).
Sometimes missing the alarm leads to deeper trust in the Lord!
Take courage in the Lord’s promise. // Sister Maria Fatima Click to tweet
Sister Maria Fatima grew up in Rhode Island and entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in 2005. She holds a MA in Theology from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. Sister is in her eleventh year of enlightening middle school minds and drawing hearts to Jesus while teaching religion and history. She currently resides at the motherhouse in Ann Arbor, MI, having previously taught in Texas, Florida, and Ohio. She is a contributing author to our Lent devotional All She Had.
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