Me: How are you?

Coworker: I’m good.

Me: It’s ok to say if you aren’t good.

Coworker: Yeah, I’m empty….

Emptiness has been the theme lately. I used to walk in the break room in the morning and hear at least four different languages being spoken. Now, there is never a wait for coffee.

While I’m blessed to be at an agency that serves so many, and continues to serve, recent events have drastically changed how we can help in our community. I know many of you reading this reflection are going through the same.

Abraham, or Abram at the time of today’s readings, also knew emptiness well. God promised his descendants would number like the stars, but still his wife was barren. It was quite a while before Sarah would bear a child, and she and Abraham tried to create their own path to fulfill God’s promise. How long did they wait in their emptiness before they gave up hope? Eventually, God provided in His own time, in His own miraculous way, a way that Abraham and Sarah did not know was possible.

In this social service agency, in this empty breakroom, in this Jubilee Year, I am choosing to wait in hope. Hope and trust do not come easy to me, but when I look around at the growing needs, I can only hope that God will provide again, in His own time and in His own miraculous way.

In my high school locker, I hung a magnet with the quote “mile by mile it’s a trial, yard by yard it’s hard, but inch by inch it’s a cinch.” This cheesy phrase helped me through some difficult times, when problems seemed big, but my steps could be small.

So, let’s walk together inch by inch; and if inches seem too daunting, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew that we just need to have faith the size of a mustard seed. And when I checked, that measures just under 2 millimeters (now if I could just find a fitting word that rhymes…).

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Devyn Buschow currently serves as the Parish Relations Program Manager at Catholic Charities Dallas.  She enjoys crocheting, spending time at the hockey rink with her family, and visiting new parishes. She thought she was better at rhyming.