Some Clarity For God's Sake!

Is 'Clarity Deficiency Syndrome' a Thing?

Anyone finding themselves deficient in clarity? Side effects may include constantly checking the news and social media, unpredictably snapping at people in your home, thinking about praying but being too overwhelmed and lacking faith of the point of even doing it and uncommon lethargy.

Disclarity in which phase our states and country are in. Disclarity in when we can get our haircut and share a meal with friends. Disclarity of when and if our Young Life leaders can take kids to camp or on a trip, and if so, how many in a group can come. And...when can businesses open and people get back to work? 'Clarity Deficiency Syndrome' is a THING.

For those uncomfortably buried beneath layers of disclarity, consider how Mother Teresa handles it.

A brilliant minded Jesuit professor and author, Fr. John F. Kavanaugh traveled across the globe to stay 3 months at Mother Teresa's “the house of the dying” in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. In epic fashion, he met Mother Teresa. She asked bluntly, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

“What do you want me to pray for?” she asked.  He voiced the request that he had traveled thousands of miles to ask: “Pray that I have clarity.”

She said firmly, “No, I will not do that." (insert record player scratch sound and cue the awkward turtle.)

When he asked her why, she said,  “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of."

Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust.  So I will pray that you trust God."

'Trust' is not often what we WANT to hear when its clarity we seek. Yet it is an essential 'big story' theme with God. Jesus masterfully personified this life. Paul, Peter and John highlighted the life of trust and faith in every Epistle. Trusting God requires that we walk by faith, not by sight. The beautiful, unshakable remedy to clarity deficiency is trust. Good 'ol Vitamin T. The value of trusting amidst the trials and suffering, which James and Peter open their Epistles with, is worth the process because of who we become and how our souls deepen.

We can hardly wait for clarity. Will you deeper your trust in the meantime? That is the bottom line.

(Quote from Ruthless Trust, by Brennan Manning, 2000 that Billy Tormey introduced me to.)