Main news for 24 June 2023

We may have already grown used to the thought that everything in the world depends on God. And that is truly so: the Lord Himself tells us that every hair on our head is counted and not one of them will fall apart from His will (Matt. 10:29-31). But here, as often happens in Christianity, there is a paradox: we are free. And God does not force us to depend on Him. One could say that He is "unable" to keep us from going after something we want very strongly. Each of us is the prodigal son, and He is the Father who, with immense patience, love, and pain, allows His children to make mistakes (see Luke 15:11-32). We may know as much as we like that God holds everything in His hand, that He sees everything, that everything depends on Him, but at times this cannot move our stubborn will even one step. Yet the Lord still waits for that step from us. Let it be a timid one, but a step. We can make the effort of which Christ speaks; we can submit to God (Jas. 4:6-7); we can overcome our pride, and God has promised to give us strength for this. And every time we take this step toward Him, instead of toward the place where our desires, often opposed to God, lead us, we accomplish, solely by God's power, a small but the most important victory in life.