The Next Road

Isaiah 43:15-21

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• who opens a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters
• see, I am doing something new! now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
• the people whom I formed for myself, that they might recount my praise

Applying the Word to My Life:
Angelo Roncalli was born into a farming family in northern Italy and spent most of his life preparing for whatever came next. He became a priest, served as a stretcher-bearer during World War I, and spent decades as a papal diplomat. During World War II, he helped save thousands of Jewish people. Later he became a cardinal and patriarch of Venice.

When the cardinals were called to choose a new pope, Roncalli was nearly seventy-seven. Few expected anything dramatic. Angelo Roncalli became Pope John XXIII. He looked like a safe choice, someone who could hold things together for a while.

There's something familiar to me in that long preparation. In my career there's always another class or lesson that can make me more effective. My sons go to school, take test-prep classes, and attend wrestling and football camps. We spend a lot of time developing the gifts we've been given.

That's good, but it goes wrong when improvement becomes the goal by itself. Then we start measuring ourselves against an impossible standard. There's always someone smarter, stronger, more successful, or more accomplished. Growth becomes an endless attempt to prove that we're enough.

That changes when growth is rooted in identity. When I know who I am and who I belong to, I don't have to become some perfect version of somebody else. I can ask a better question: am I developing what God gave me so I can use it for the mission He gave me?

When we know who we are and whose we are, growth stops being an attempt to prove ourselves and becomes preparation for mission.

That's what makes today's reading so powerful. God reminds Israel that He opened a way through the sea. Then He says, "See, I am doing something new!" The point isn't to forget what God did before. It's to know Him well enough to trust Him when the next road looks different.

John XXIII was ready for that. He didn't need to invent himself when he became pope. Decades of prayer, service, study, and experience had already shaped him. Because he knew the foundation, he was free to look ahead. And that's how the supposed caretaker pope called the Second Vatican Council.

He didn't live to see it completed, but the Council would shape the Church for generations. Near the end of his life, John said the Gospel hadn't changed; "we have begun to understand it better."

That's the difference between change for its own sake and growth rooted in identity. The foundation remains. The mission develops.

The same is true for us. God doesn't ask us to become someone else. He asks us to develop what He has already given us and stay attentive enough to recognize where He is asking us to use it next.

The road ahead may not look like the road behind us. God is leading us, and He hasn't changed.

My Response for Today:
Today I'll ask whether I'm growing to prove myself or to serve the mission God gave me.

ABOUT ST. JOHN XXIII
Name: St. John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli)
Lived: November 25, 1881 – June 3, 1963, Sotto il Monte, Italy to Vatican City
Feast Day: October 11
Patron of: papal delegates; the Second Vatican Council; the Italian Army
Title: Pope; "Good Pope John"
Selected Writings: Address for the opening of the Second Vatican Council (October 11, 1962) — his own words setting the tone for the Council
Read more: Franciscan Media · Franciscan Media: John XXIII and John Paul II, Beloved Saints