Everything around us seems to be getting more automatic. We press buttons or tap screens all day long. And we see the results - the car starts immediately at the press of a button, the letters appear on the screen, the new screen glows and emerges.
We can get so used to pushing buttons and tapping screens that we can begin to treat other people like they were a keyboard or a screen: they should respond immediately at the press of a button or touch of the screen.
But people aren't screens. People aren't buttons.
Our expectations build until they are an avalanche crushing us.
Jesus wants to rescue us from the inundation: "Do not let your hearts be troubled" (Jn. 14:1).
Releasing ourselves from our own expectations is hard work. It means allowing ourselves to be liberated from the demanding spirit that can often hover over us. Demands love results. The more we play with the spirit of demands and results, the more we will grow unsettled by unreachable expectations.
And we can even draft God as an agent to secure our expectations. And if He doesn't deliver, resentment begins to build.
Prayer doesn't involve pressing a button or swiping a screen. Prayer means sitting down at church in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or in the silence of our own room and letting God be free. God meets us in silence. He wants to take us to Himself in love. As we sit down to pray, the demands, expectations, and wishes for results swirl around us.
Let them go. Put them down as often as you have to. And as we repeatedly let go of the momentum, a new freedom will slowly be born is us. Let grace replace your expectations. Let meeting God be more important than the countless buttons and the hypnotic screens.
Next time you want to reach for your phone, stop. And reach for God instead in a simple moment of prayer.
God bless,
Msgr. Bransfield
