ANXIETY ABOUT THE FUTURE

With the Covid pandemic still raging, the chaos in Afghanistan costing more American lives, inflation driving up prices, taxes driving down income, and the Federal Government’s senseless spending, here’s a word from Bishop François Fénelon following the unrest after the war between France and Spain.

The future is in God’s hands, not harmonizing with your will; God will rule it according to your need. But if you seek to forecast it in your wisdom, you will gain nothing but anxiety and anticipation of inevitable trouble. Try only to make use of each day. Each day brings its good and evil. Sometimes what seems evil becomes good if we leave it to God and do not get in His way with our impatience.

Be sure that God will grant you whatever time you need to reach Him. Perhaps He may not give you as much as you would like for your plans or to please yourself under the pretext of seeking spiritual perfection. Still, you will find that neither time nor opportunity for self-denial and self-pleasing will be in short supply. All other time is lost when you spend it on carving out your future, no matter how good your efforts or intentions may seem. Be assured that you will find all such circumstances adapted to your actual needs, not wishes. In proportion, as God upsets your inclinations, He will be aware of your weakness. However, do not be afraid; leave everything to Him. You will always find freedom in God so long as you do not surrender to the false idea that you have lost the freedom to think and act. 

Written over 450 years ago

Vocabulary redacted by Dr. Robert R Seyda