Our Venerable Father George, Bishop of Mitylene.
Day 36 of the Great Fast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients.
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 48:17-49:4; Vespers – Genesis 27:1-41; Proverbs 19:16-25.
Read Proverbs 19:16-25
There are many thoughts in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the Lord abides forever.
This piece of wisdom resonates with me very deeply. My final call to the priesthood by my ordaining bishop came in a way that was completely unexpected, even troubling and difficult to accept. And as I navigated that with my spiritual father, the truth of the proverb here was emphasized many times.
Now I’m serving in a parish that is struggling, and we don’t know what the future holds. We are trying different things in order to improve our situation; however, these are not guaranteed to bring about a strong enough recovery. Ultimately, like the Proverb says, the purpose of the Lord will stand.
And this true for all of us in different areas of our life. We have ideas of what things will look like but the Lord often has other plans for us—and these are always better than ours.
And this can be hard—hard to have plans or some idea of what your life will look like and then, boom, it changes because God had other plans. We can know that God’s purpose is infinitely better than ours and still struggle with it.