While abroad with my family and looking at the beautiful scenery of Toscana and Umbria I was struck by the GPS voice of ‘Ema’, who every time we took a wrong turning or missed an exit onto a slip road would tell us: recalculating!

Amazingly, it would always find an alternative route from our present position and lead us safely to our destination. No matter where we were, no matter our new position, ‘she’ would always manage to find an alternative route, giving us a real sense of security, knowing that somehow we will get to our destination.

Obviously, Ema is a machine and so finds it very easy to recalculate the way forward from the new position ‘she’ finds herself in.

While sitting in the back seat of the car, a luxury since I am rarely driven and usually am driving myself, I started to reflect on the importance of this for us human beings and the more I reflect the more I realize how much we badly need it! It is vital for us to learn to grow in this capacity: the art and wisdom of recalculating the way forward from the new position we find ourselves in.

In life sometimes we find ourselves in a new situation, a situation we never imagined we would find ourselves in. There are different reasons why this can happen: a breakdown in our relationships, our business fails, we find ourselves without a job, mental or physical ill-health... whatever the reason, this happens to us constantly and the more time goes by the more we find ourselves in similar situations.

We cannot really discover the way forward without taking stock, becoming aware, of what our new context is

The crux of it all: we cannot really discover the way forward without taking stock, becoming aware, of what our new context is. The GPS in our car, that saves the day so many times as we travel, has that unique capacity to gather information about one’s present position to then recalculate a new route. When it comes to us humans both operations are not that easy: firstly, becoming aware of our present position, evaluating, taking stock of who I am today and where I am at the present moment and secondly, recalculating the way forward, becoming aware of what I must do to look ahead.

One of the mistakes we sometimes do is trying to push forward with the originally planned route when in actual fact we know that this will not work out. When we are young we usually dream for the future and plan our life in such a way that we are convinced that our plans for the future are foolproof.

As the years go by it is a tough experience to find oneself in a situation not planned before. At the same time, even though we resist, the only way to find new peace and enthusiasm is to look ahead, to stop and reflect on what God is telling us to do given our new life situation.

I feel that our faith plays a very important part in this process. If we take a look at the history of salvation it is full of examples of good practice – persons who found themselves in new situations because of their faith in God or because of life situations they found themselves in and who managed to move on in a new direction thanks to God who accompanied them. Our faith has that unique characteristic of giving us hope, God gives us the courage to move on in the new direction we have discovered by trusting him completely with our lives.

The start of a new year comes as a unique opportunity to evaluate our lives and to recalculate, either by taking radical decisions if need be or by taking small decisions which will leave a positive impact on our daily lives. It also comes as a unique opportunity to find the courage to move forward, to make some proposals for the new year ahead and to implement them.

As we start a new year let us find the courage to trust God with our lives as he helps us recalculate our ways towards the future.

Happy New Year!

mal-prov@jesuit.org.mt

Fr Patrick Magro is provincial of the Society of Jesus.

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