Do what you can do

Ever feel like you just can’t do it. It’s bigger than you. The list, the project, the job, the issue, the challenge, the decision? Do you feel like it’s winning? Lately, my catch phrase has been, I have too many projects and I am tired.

I’m reading a book about a Benedictine monk that journals his conversations with Jesus. The monk is expressing to Jesus that he feels tired and needs rest. Then he feels guilty for not being able to carry out all that he thought he should get done in a day. Jesus responds to the monk,

“do what you can do. I will help you, gently, little by little, to make the necessary changes. Don’t give into feelings of guilt because you are not living up to an ideal you have set for yourself. I do not ask you to be faithful to an ideal. I ask you to be My friend and to live at every moment in the grace of My divine friendship.”

I do not ask you to be faithful to an ideal… How often am I trying to live up to an ideal, one that I have created out of my own need for perfection? How often am I living up to an ideal to meet a performance target? How often am I living up to an ideal to meet an expectation, either my own or someone else’s? Well, no wonder I am tired and in need of rest. Jesus says, do what you can do.

Is that okay? Is do what you can do, okay? In Jesus’ conversation with the monk, He offers to help him, to come alongside. If my ideal takes precedence over my friendship with Jesus, have I made room for Jesus to come alongside?, probably not. For someone to come alongside we have to create space and offer an invitation, otherwise we continue to travel in solitude.

“Live at every moment in the grace of My divine friendship”. That sounds very appealing. Living in grace sounds better than living under expectations or performance targets. Living in grace sounds more soothing than living in anxiety and stress. Living in grace sounds more captivating than living in an ideal crafted by my own design. Living in a divine friendship with Jesus is the ideal.

It is simple really, to invite Jesus in, to call upon His name. But, in practice it’s hard, hard because I forget. I forget to create space for the divine friendship to flourish. I forget that Jesus wants nothing more than for us to walk together, in the most mundane to the most challenging situations. And for us to walk together I have to be intentional about the invitation. I can get so consumed with what is happening around me and the situation at hand, that I forget about the friendship He has offered; I forget that I can live every moment in the grace of His friendship. It’s a choice.

In the midst of challenges, frustrations, stresses, confrontations, anger, hurts and doubts, if I pause for just a second and call on Jesus, invite Him into the midst of the situation, things just may change. He is not a distant friend, but sometimes, I am. When I allow circumstances to consume me, self-sufficiency trumps and I find myself separated from the gift of His divine friendship.

Jesus asks us to be his friend, to create space for the two of us, to take time for nurturing a friendship, for my benefit. Then His grace is poured out, the grace that removes my ideal and replaces it with divine friendship, then, “do what you can do”, is okay.