If there’s any thing the events of the past few weeks have taught me is that nothing is permanent. Change is the essence of life, and it’s only when you think you have it all figured out for the 1,530,231st time that come to realize for the 1,530,231st time you don’t. This morning during my morning office in the prayer grove it occured to me that the only constants in life are change and God’s own Providence, Love, and Mercy. All too often we get caught up in all the changes and chances of our daily lives, forgetting all too often just how fortunate we are to simply have life and to live life when so many around us are just trying to make it through another day.

It occurred to me that no two things in life are given the same chance at survival – not two people, two trees, two rabbits, two blades of grass, two sea creatures, two clouds, two drops of rain, two bougainvillea, two anything. I never bought the idea that God only gives people as much as they can handle: actually, I always that to be kind of a warped understanding of a supposed loving God’s sense of inequality. In my mind, it is this very lack of equality that makes creation and life itself sacred. Everything has its own place in the world – even misfortune, suffering, and death. And even amidst those things we try as hard as we can to avoid come opportunities to learn, be humble, and lean on and draw closer to the Creator Who knows us, loves us and cares for us more than we could ever know. People will let you down every time. God never will.

While attending Mass yesterday I couldn’t help but look around at the hundreds of people there around me. Young, old, white, Hispanic, Asians, African-Americans, couples, families, individuals. The guy who zoomed past me and was weaving in and out of traffic, driving like a total whacko – yes, even “Mr. Red Light Runner” in his fashionable jet-black Monte Carlo wearing the baby blue designer shades was there. And I couldn’t help but wonder why. I mean, I know (or at least assume I know) why they were there, but I couldn’t help but wonder what their own life stories were, what niche or place in their lives they sought or believed God would fill through His Divine Grace by attending Mass? So many people, so many stories, one Absolute Truth. I thought it was all pretty cool. (Well, all except the the Psalms which the band played with almost a disco beat…)

And it was then I understood once again, in the lifting up of the Sacraments and recitation of that familar, divine Liturgy of the Mass the eternal changelessness of God made manifest and revealed in our midst. The same God Who loved us so much He would die for us. There it was, as Nancie Carmichael writes, the comforting presence of God. God the One Great Constant.

All these thoughts were with me this morning. And then I thought how good it was that the emotional turmoil of the last few weeks was a good thing. Not being far from a horse or mule without understanding (Ps. 32:9), I needed a good slap upside the head, for it made me realize just how fortunate I was to be alive, fed, clothed, employed, sheltered, and healthy. It reminded me just how important it was to get my spiritual house swept clean and organized once again to prepare myself for lovely, purple Advent, the start of new Church Year, the preparation time for welcoming the Christ Child into my heart once again. The end of yet another year, the promise of the start of a new one looming.

2008 has been a long hard struggle. But in the struggle is to realize just how alive one is, for better or for worse. My grandfather would say that any day you wake up on the green side of the grass was a good day all by itself. Tonight I take his words to heart and say a prayer of thanks for simply being able to be a part of it all, this thing called life.