Saturday of the 4th Week of Easter
Acts 13:44-52
Jn 14:7-14
‘Philip said, “Lord let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.”
Of course, Philip is right!
Philip is Cuba Gooding Jr in the film Jerry Maguire; hips gyrating as he makes Tom Cruise yell that unforgettable phrase over the phone – Show Me the Money!
It’s so human to feel the way Philip did. To want assurances before we take a certain step forward, or embark on a certain course of action. The athlete in Jerry Maguire wanted his sports agent to assure him of monetary wealth and success before retaining him as an agent.
How many times have we expected that of Our Father?
Without elaborating too much, many of us have heard of Christian denominations that preach the ‘gospel of prosperity’. Do this and that, and God will ‘bless’ you with monetary and professional success. Faith in God becomes conditional.
We all dream to do great things. We want to make the difference. We want to be great. But we often mistake true greatness. But the attainment of all this without the will of God would be empty.
It took me a long time to learn this, but our real objective is to do the will of God with faith. It means asking God to lead you to do His will — discerning His will and then doing it humbly.
As a young adult, barely into the workforce, I had big dreams of monetary success; wanting to be successful in my profession, the acquisition of monetary wealth and earthly possessions.
I worked very hard. Long hours, weekends. I still work hard now. Managing work, my academic studies and 2 young children is no mean feat.
Sometimes, in the early hours of the morning when I’m trying to desperately complete a reading or finish up an assignment, my daughter would cry out because she had a bad dream or had just awoken and is scared. She wants me to hold her and comfort her. At the back of my mind is my reading, or my assignment. But I know my daughter needs me at that point in time. She needs me to gently and patiently comfort her back to sleep. I have no clue how long this will take, or if I will famously fall asleep next to her and wake up hours later.
To me, that’s my God-given responsibility as a father. When I fulfil that with faith, somehow, somewhere comes the grace from God to complete the task I had set out to complete. Not always in the timeline or manner I had planned, but always fulfilled.
Fatherhood has taught me that very often, plans go out the window. But with faith in Our Father’s plan, working with the correct objectives at heart and applying oneself to the best of one’s abilities, it leaves Our Father to make all things right, In His Time.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Gerard Francis)
Prayer: We pray for the grace to keep trusting in God’s plans without expecting earthly assurances
Thanksgiving: We give thanks to Our Heavenly Father. He always makes things right, in His time.
OXYGEN 
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