When we had our first child, we had a long time to prepare. We didn't get surprised, but it was a still a shock when we brought him home the very first night and looked at each other and felt wildly underprepared. We weren't ready to be parents. I don't know that there's anything that can really prepare you for that. We're still making it up as we go, 13 years later.
There are so many situations like that. We encounter them in the world, and we have to figure out how to deal with it. Are we ready for many of them? In so many ways, no, we aren't.
But when we study the Gospel and the life of Jesus, we are ready for them. The more we study the Gospels, the more we see the way that Jesus chooses to love, chooses to be selfless, chooses to exercise grace. He embodies a way of living that we can imitate if we are students of it. We see how he reacts to the anxiety and fear of others by being a non-anxious presence. He creates space for those who are on the outside of the community to come in, and to be welcomed for who they are, regardless of what their past looks like. He cares. He listens. He stops what he is doing and attends to the person in front of him.
The more you read the Gospels, the more you learn about the ways Jesus interacts. The more you take this into your heart, the more ready you are to go into the world and react to people the way that Jesus does. As someone who is non-anxious, because you have nothing to be anxious about. You have been claimed in the waters of baptism, marked as Christ's own forever. What can anything do to you? You are safely secured in the arms of the same God who hung the stars in the sky. Take that into the depths of your heart, into the secret places in your soul, and let that light purge the darkness. As you do that, you then are ready for the slings and arrows the world will surely throw your way, but you can react to people the way that Jesus does. You are ready.
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