Embracing the mess of the fray

I wanted to re-post this blog from Fallible Blogma, a great Catholic blog written by a fellow Houstonian named Matthew Warner. It’s a great message for parents, but especially for all of the hardworking dads out there as Father’s Day approaches.

I’ve been trying my heart out lately to step up into my new roles of Stay-at-Home Mom and Wife of a Man Who Just Started a Business. The Wife of a Man Who Just Started a Business role is the tougher of the two so far! Michael is working as hard or harder than I’ve ever seen him. He has, hands down, the strongest work ethic I’ve ever seen, but he even his seemingly boundless energy is really being taxed lately by the demands of our new business (on top of maintaining his 40-hour work weeks). A new baby coming soon as well as the loss of the income from our old job certainly may make things a little more intense for him!

I love the part in this article about finding peace in the “sweat” of the journey. So perfect in the 100+ degree heat we are having here in Houston…

I pray for Michael, speak encouraging words and Scripture to him, take care of Gabriel, make him healthy meals and give him a clean and peaceful house to come home to. And these are valuable things for sure. But sometimes when he’s out late working, and still gets up faithfully and uncomplaining at the crack of dawn each day, I desperately want to be able to pick up a shovel, or a weed-eater, and physically help him.

I’m so thankful for this opportunity and challenge God has given us, because I know He is working on both of our souls.

And you know what? Talk about God’s timing: He absolutely has seemed to orchestrate the starting of our business with my quitting my job and entering my third trimester, so that I would have the time and energy to do all of the things I am able to do for Michael to support him. And I’m awed and thankful for that.

[From Matthew’s June 15 blog, “Embracing the Mess of the Fray”]

“When we find ourselves grousing about having so little time for ourselves, for being asked to do so much, let’s try to remind ourselves that that’s the way it’s supposed to be. God gave us our families to serve. We are being asked to give everything for our families. Indeed, we are being called to be modern heroes in our families and in our society.” – Stephen Gabriel, To Be A Father

Sometimes we look for peace and relief in all the wrong places. For many things, we just have to accept the fray of the world we live in. We have to find comfort in the mess and joy in the day-to-day struggle. Otherwise, we’ll be endlessly dissatisfied and stressed.

It’s like buying your own house and then only looking forward to the day when there are just no more things to fix or chores to do around it. That day just doesn’t come. We have to find some comfort in the unfinished work. This earthly life is a journey, not a destination or vacation. Yet we make the mistake of trying to turn it into one.

Find peace in the sweat of the journey. Only in such peace do we discover the presence of mind to really embrace the adventure and gift of the life before us.

We need to stop racing toward some hypothetical end all the time where we’re finally “all caught up”…only to realize at the end that we’ve missed the point entirely. All of the things we grumble about are most often precisely the things we should be doing. They are precisely the things we need for the journey. Don’t waste them. Embrace them.