1st Sunday of Lent
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Written by Julianna Nett
I’ll be honest y’all, 2 years ago I was going through one of the most heartbreaking and difficult seasons of my life. I felt lost in every single way except for one. I knew I was strong in my faith, but it still sucked that I was in pain all of the time. Something really heart wrenching in my life happened and the next day I got the pleasure of giving a talk to some teens on a retreat which I kid you not was titled “Joy despite Difficulties”. No, it was not I who came up with the title. As I was writing my talk, I was laughing/crying at the absolute irony of the situation. I did not talk about that current hurt because it almost felt as if I was in a million pieces yet somehow glued together, barely forming a walking human.
At that point in time I was on a core team of my brother-in-law’s, which was why I was helping put on the retreat. My brother-in-law described me that weekend as a “champ”; he told me no one even knew I was in a “mind-numbing amount of pain”. I describe it as putting every last resort of hurt and feeling lost in the Lord. One evening on the retreat, during Adoration, I and a few others were praying over others, which genuinely stressed me out because I had never done it before. But alas, I just relied on the Lord.
A teen girl came up to me and presented her situation and of course the Lord would have her come to me because she was going through a situation that I had similarly gone through in the past. The words started flowing out of my mouth. It was after that I realized that He was there for me when I was younger as I was going through that, and I didn’t even realize it.
Then it dawned on me that if I can overcome that without knowing He was always there, knowing He is by my side I surely can get through this. Sure, I absolutely did not get His ways at the time, and many times I still do not, but I knew I had to stay committed to not only Him but His ways. He truly is perfect in all of His ways. I remember having feelings that I was about to be transformed. I kept sitting with “You cannot change but you change everything”. The months following were hard, but I would not trade the life I have lived with Him for the world because it truly consisted of love and truth.
So, what does it even mean to keep his covenant? Great question. In my humble understanding it is 1,000% doing your best to follow the 10 commandments and owning your mistakes when you mess up. Do I follow all of them perfectly everyday? No. Do I fall short? I sure do. But do I try to continually strive for better? I try my absolute best. In my humble opinion it is also accepting whatever is thrown at your life especially when you do not like it or it hurts. In this situation you have one of two choices: accept it or resent it.
There was a previous time in my life where I was not so optimistic about a situation and resented it; I essentially denied what was happening and sort of shut down all together for quite a few months. From that I learned to choose the Lord and choose joy, which has prepared me for everything else that has and ultimately will come my way. Every situation is better with Him because regardless He provides love and truth.
How can you choose Him and His ways?
Julianna Nett loves iced coffee, tacos, and Jesus. She has been working in the Catholic non-profit world for the past 5 years & has most recently had the pleasure of working in the events field for a Catholic non-profit. She is proud of her Wisconsin heritage and will never miss an opportunity to cheer for the Green Bay Packers. You can catch her on Instagram!
Pray with today’s psalm.