When the general consolations of life — a change of scenery, comfort food, good conversations, restorative sleep, sincere thanks and the like — aren’t enough to help us face our dilemmas du jour, we may be being called to greater dependence on God.
“God alone is enough,” says St. Teresa of Jesus. She was someone who faced plenty of challenges as she traveled through a complicated and often misunderstood spiritual life. She also found herself maneuvering political landmines and the personal agendas of people opposed to her attempts to reform her order and found new convents.
In other words, Teresa had to persevere through years when nothing came easily and her every attempt to do God’s will was met with opposition. Add to that multiple health challenges, difficult modes of travel and lack of societal safety nets and we can surmise that her life much of the time was a long walk in a trial-filled faith.
And yet, with God’s often-hidden assistance, Teresa accomplished the work she was called to do. Like us, she could look back and see how God helped her. But when she was in the thick of things, she suffered the whims of superiors, the complaints of her religious and natural families, and a great deal of self-doubt.
As we negotiate our way through sadness, sufferings, squashed dreams and lost hopes, we can allow it all to make us bitter toward God — or we can let those losses push us closer to Him.
As always, it is our choice. Either we turn away, or we keep going and going and going to God until, like Teresa, we finally realize that God, and only God, can be relied upon always.
God truly, only, is enough.