Life’s Ups & Downs

Life has its “ups & downs”. Some days we’re doing wonderfully well and other days, our life seems to be a disaster. This happens to normal people like you and me and it happens to famous people, even to saints. 

The prophet Elijah experienced one of the most magnificent displays of God’s power in the Old Testament… the calling down of God’s power on the prophets of Baal. (1Kings  18:20-39) Yet soon after this magnificent event, he found himself in a bout of serious fear and depression… “ he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers. (1Kings 19:3-4) Talk about life’s “ups & downs”.

Fr. Walter Ciszek’s  wrote two books describing his 23 years in Russian prisons and Siberian labor camps. After boasting how he would be able to handle the interrogators at the notorious Lubyanka Prison, he found himself “broken and defeated, burning with shame, ….. I had lost hope, I had lost sight of God. I was  even tempted to take my own life.” (“He Leadeth Me”, page 71,79) With deepening humility and the grace of God, he bounced back and lived a magnificent life over his last many years in Siberian labor camps. Even the saintly Walter Ciszek had his spiritual ups & downs. 

Judy and I had been married for less than 3 years.  On one hand things were coming together; I was back from my active duty stint in the service, working as a research chemist in the day and studying for an M.B.A. at night. Judy, having finished her Masters degree, was working as a speech therapist. We were living the dream. Despite life seemingly going well, our new marriage was hitting turbulent waters and we could not seem to agree on anything. Our marriage was in trouble. 

Seemingly out of the blue, Judy and I experienced a deep conversion to God, a major moment of realizing that Jesus was real and he loved each of us and he forgave our sins. Scripture came alive, the Holy Spirit became our close companion bringing the life of God into our life. I had a strong desire to reorient my life to the ways and will of God…making Jesus my Lord. A deep peace came into my soul. During the years following 1972, my life changed in many wonderful ways. Key nagging sins dropped away, our marriage was revived and we became open to life. We began to regularly frequent the sacraments; “the peace that passes all understanding” came into my life. So many good things were happening. In those first few years of marriage, we hit some big “ups & downs”. In the next 50+ years, we’ve continued to have our “ups & downs”. In all of them , the Lord has been with us. 

So what’s the point of this BLOG? I guess it’s that we often don’t have a good assessment of how we’re doing and what’s needed in the next moment of our journey with Christ on this earth. Sometimes we think we’re strong and can tackle anything, yet find ourselves failing. Other times we may think our failures have disqualified us, only to realize that the Lord is close by and is working all our challenges to the good. 

In a nutshell, we are precious to God. He  loves us far more than we can  imagine. He takes care of us in every situation…in the midst of all our  many “ups & downs”. And that is very good news.