Ayudar – to help
In these first few weeks of the new year, we may be energized by a renewed sense of commitment to things that matter. We make New Year Resolutions, refocusing our efforts to be the person we want to be, and who we believe God wants us to be. We may feel a surge of hope that we can accomplish more than we have in the past year, live with more integrity, be more disciplined, have more courage.
This new energy is a good thing and can be harnessed to benefit ourselves and others. But we may also set ourselves up for a frustrating crash into the wall of reality. The problem with New Year Resolutions is that they tend to focus on what we can do, rather than on what God is doing.
I find a helpful corrective to this self-reliance in the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola (if you’ve been reading much of this blog, you’ll find no surprise in this!). Ignatius describes his life’s work using the Spanish word ayudar, meaning “to help.” God call us to help with the work of the kingdom, by working with Christ to serve others. Helping others doesn’t require us to be superheroes, just available – available to work with Christ as he blesses people and situations.
This simple call to help others calls us back from the two extremes of work: overachievement and apathy. As overachievers, we think everything depends upon us and what we can accomplish; we also think we must create value in ourselves by what we do. But Christ already sees and knows our value, and already wants us to serve with him. Conversely, we are tempted to apathy when we think that nothing we do really, ultimately matters; we feel worthless, invisible. But we are not invisible to God. The fact that Christ sees who we are and wants us to work with him and his Father, means that we possess great, intrinsic worth. We are always of value to Christ in any given situation, in every relationship. We need only make ourselves available to help.
From this perspective, perhaps we don’t need any gargantuan New Year Resolutions. Instead, let’s go for a simple New Day Resolution, or a New Moment Resolution, to find the little ways we can help Christ help others. Ayudar. To help. Our calling in Christ.
Mike, I have felt both ways on this,
Sometimes I feel that if I don’t try to do something that it might not get done but at the same time, I feel as if I’m beating my head against the wall and nobody is listening or responding that maybe it doesn’t even matter to people. I know that ultimately God is in control of what He wants me to do. So when I think about this, I try to release my own feelings and let God handle it……because He is going to anyway.
I don’t even do New Years resolutions any more because I know that God has the last say in what I’m doing in my life.
This may sound a little off track, but it really has to do with letting God lead your life. After finishing the book “The Middle Place’ by Kelly Corrigan, one bit kept resonating in my head until I had to go back and find the passage and have been thinking about it ever since.
Here is the passage… (Kelly is speaking of her father, nicknamed Greenie, who has cancer)
…I was pretty sure Greenie wouldn’t pray to be cured any more than he would pray for Notre Dame to beat Penn State. He always gave me the sense that the more specific a prayer was, the less chance it had of being answered. So when Greenie talked to God, he probably said things like, “Hey, pal, thanks for taking such good care of me and my family,” which is basically like giving God a pass. (The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan, Page 205)
The more specific a prayer, the less chance it has of being answered?
A specific prayer is good in that it makes one really discern what they need. On the other hand, one must believe that it is up to God to discern what is best.
(And as I write this, I laugh to myself, as I never had my kids make out Christmas lists. In our house, Santa always brings what he thinks is best)
Boiled down, I think the non specific prayer thing is basically being open and willing to hearing and doing God’s work. Lead me. Help me. Show me. But actively praying for that guidance.
At my age I often find myself saying Been there Done that. I just finished reading Lave a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Sat. with Morrie) A wonderful book given to me by Joe’s daughter Linda for Christmas. I feel I want to look for new challanges but then find excuses to deny them. Going to Jonathan’s service Sat. Hope it is a success. This is the first time I have read your blog. God Bless YOu , Mike Nancy Lazor