Coincidence of TIming

So, yesterday, I wrote about Father Sam's comments from ten days earlier, one noting that prophets were always sent when people needed reminding.  Interesting that one day later, it turns out that the Catholic mass reading (Jeremiah 7:23-28), turns out to be a reminder to the people of the simple rule they were given--"Listen to my [i.e., God's] voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people."  Not that listening and following was always supposed to be easy but a very simple expression of faith.  Then the rest of the reading goes on to comment on how people always turned away, turned their back to God rather than facing God, and became stiff necked (I have wondered often where that expression came from).  As I think about my own spiritual journey, I think about how to continue to turn my face to God and to avoid losing sight and becoming just as stiff necked as the people of ancient Israel.  I think that half the battle may be just to keep things like this on my mind and in my heart.  But that is only half the battle, of course.  The rest is to live them out.     

God's Gifts, God's Will, Free Choice

Today's first reading in the Catholic church is a challenge for me when I think about free will.  The reading today is Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19.  It begins with

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

This challenges me to think about what it really means.  Now, of course, I am not claiming to be like the prophet Jeremiah in any way, shape, or form in terms of the whatever God had intended for me.  (At least not in terms of being a prophet.  I do think that God cares about each of us equally and does not play favorites.)  

In any case, if God knows a person before they are formed in the womb, when exactly is that?  From one perspective it reminds me of philosophies (new age or otherwise) that suggest that the souls are waiting somewhere to come to Earth as life when an opportunity arises.  Is that where God knows a person before they are formed?  My question is more rhetorical than anything else as I realize that not everything ie meant to be read literally but it is nevertheless fun to consider.

Then it says that God dedicated Jeremiah and appointed him a prophet to the nations.  This suggests that God had something in mind for Jeremiah.  It also suggests that God may have something in mind for each of us.  

But, to avoid a thought of complete predestination, the reading goes on to ask whether Jeremiah does certain things and reassures him that God will be there.

That, to me, emphasizes the free choice that Jeremiah had even though God had appointed hi a prophet.  And that reflects then on the free choice we all, as humans, have.  And it also makes me comfortable with what I think of as "God given gifts" and my ongoing spiritual question to figure out what those are and how I am "supposed" to be using them.  I am not Mother Teresa, but I try to make the world a better place for those with whom I associate in little ways.  I particularly focus on the question of "what was intended" in times of change.  Looking ahead I can only hope that the choices I have made that will modify my career path are the right ones and that God will continue to reveal to me as I go along how I can use the gifts I was given and the opportunities that come my way to make life on earth one step closer to what God had hoped for a kingdom for all those who are around me.