~Let It Be~

In the past several months I have found myself being bombarded by a seemingly endless array of questions---questions from people in my life…..and questions asked within the confines of my own heart and mind. And all of them have left me down-trodden, tired, confused, and frustrated.

First, there’s the questions from people in my life. People always want to know when I’m getting married and why my boyfriend hasn’t proposed yet. When people, mainly non-Catholics, find out about my baptism they want to know what prompted that decision. People question if I will ever go to graduate school or secure a teaching degree. People want to know what exactly I plan on doing with my writing. And people wonder why I’m so nice to everyone, regardless of if those people are nice back.

I have answers to most of those questions; however, they aren’t always the simplest or easiest of answers to deliver back. And no matter what answer I give, people never seem to be satisfied.

Then there’s the answers I combat within myself. I wonder on a daily basis what I should do with my writing and how I can further myself as a writer. I question why it seems like the pieces are falling into place in everyone else’s life but mine. I wonder why it is so hard for me to find friends that are will stand by me through thick and thin. I question why people in my life are so inclined to forgive those around them….just not me. I question why I have to be so heavily judged all the time for everything that I do and am. 

I could go on and on with the kinds of questions I am asked and that I ask of myself. The list of answers to those questions, unfortunately, is considerably smaller. I’ve never been one to be terribly concerned with having my life planned out or knowing what’s coming next, but I wish the endless stream of questions could go away---at least for a while. 

I was resentfully brooding over all of the answerless questions constantly smothering me the other day when I started thinking about the Beatles song “Let It Be.” It just so happens that is one of my favorite songs, but one I rarely listen to. It occurred to me that I don’t even have the song on my iPod. So I went and purchased the song, slipped my ear phones in and listened. I probably listened to the song a dozen times trying to take in all of the lyrics. The phrase that stood out, and is still stuck in my mind, is “There will be an answer…..let it be.” 

After thinking about it, I realized that that phrase is the perfect answer to all of the unsolved questions of life. It is the answer I need to give others and the answer I need to give myself. I don’t have all the answers I want right now. Someday I will get some of them. And some I will search for over the course of a lifetime and never find. But just believing that there IS in fact an answer for everything, is all you really need to worry about.

One of the best things about the night I was baptized was that I felt this overwhelming sense of trust and assurance that everything that had happened in my life up until that night was part of a specific plan for me. There were no accidents or coincidences. It all had purpose. And now, I have assurance that all of the chapters and journeys left to unfold in my life will have purpose too. We just have to let things happen. And when the unfortunate and challenging things befall us, we need to just take a deep breath and say to ourselves, “there will be answer.” Because in the end, there really will be. Even if God alone knows it. We need to let it all be and trust that He will take care of us.