The Exchange

In the 1966 movie, “The Trouble With Angels” Mary a rebellious young girl at a Catholic school run by Mother Superior (Rosalind Russel),found the head of school finishing a project begun by another student who had fallen asleep. For the first time Mary had a real conversation with Mother Superior, who told her about her life in Paris working in a Couture shop as a seamstress. Mother Superior warmed to her subject and said, “I was in great demand, and I believe I could have made it as a designer.” Mary asked, “What happened?” “I found something better,” responded the nun with a smile. To Mary nothing could have been better than designing and wearing beautiful clothes, and here was a woman exchanging those for a uniform of black and white saying she had found something “better.”

“But he (Jesus) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. . . That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses. . . for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

St. Paul makes clear a very great contradiction at the center of his relationship with his God. Paul had made an exchange by surrendering his self-sufficiency when Jesus called him to a deeper partnership with Him. In return Paul received the strength that would renew him when he felt weak.

Dealing with things that hold us bound and separate us from Christ in exchange for Christ’s Holy Spirit is the work of Christians constantly. It amounts to growth that enlarges our lives with others as well as with our God.

When asked by people who knew Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”(John 6:29)

I’m convinced that one reason so many of us resist drawing closer to God through His Book and through prayer, is the fear that He will make demands we are unwilling to accept, and that the exchange made in the fictional story of the Mother Superior and in the true life of Paul will be too difficult or too unpleasant; but if we think of the One who is offering the exchange, of His Creativity, His Goodness, His Strength, Power, and strong Promises, we would have to acknowledge that He will be receiving the poorer exchange and we the richer. To be closer to our Creator, to experience eternity and perceive our own place there, to believe the promises until they live in us, is better than the best that we can construct by ourselves. Then the exchange will be simple.

Love in Him,

Prue