My husband and I are part of a small group that meets every month and is made up of other Catholic married couples. The girls of the group have a group chat that we use to share prayer requests, encourage each other, and have girl-only sidebars. At the beginning of the year, one of the girls shared with us that her family chooses a saint every year to pray to and model themselves after. They use a random saint generator online to pick their saint for the year. I decided to try that this year because I have been meaning to get to know the saints more.

So the next day, I pulled up the saint generator and quickly said a prayer asking God to send me the perfect saint for the year. Secretly, I was praying for someone like St. Jude, who is the patron saint of lost causes. You see, I’ve had an undiagnosed chronic illness for ten years, and in my mind, I sometimes feel like a lost cause. Without even realizing it, I had come up with this whole plan in my head about how I would get St. Jude and that would mean I was going to be miraculously healed this year. It was all so exciting, let me tell you! I clicked the button and two seconds later my saint came up as…St. John Berchmans.

Now you may be thinking, “Oh, yeah…he’s super cool…who is he again?” 

Yep. I had never heard of him either. Cue immediate disappointment. My plan for my miraculous year had come crumbling down. 

But then I thought, “Well, let’s see what he’s the patron saint of!”

Altar servers. Yeah, so I was never an altar server. 

However, I read through the quick bio and immediately saw why St. John was my saint for the year. I’ll share with you the last paragraph from catholicsaints.info:

“John Berchmans was not noted for extraordinary feats of holiness or austerity, nor did he found orders or churches or work flashy miracles. He made kindness, courtesy, and constant fidelity an important part of holiness. The path to holiness can lie in the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.”*

Have you ever had a moment when you feel God? It could be a physical feeling or a moment of peace when you read or see something. Either way, you have a rush of love flood through you. I had that feeling when I read the last sentence. 

“The path to holiness can lie in the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.”

In that one sentence, God was speaking to that lie inside me that is constantly screaming that I am worthless. As my health has continued to decline over the years, my days have begun to look very different. I can no longer work a normal 9-5 job. I can no longer run all my errands in one day. The devil uses my hardest, slowest days to point out how incredibly worthless he thinks I am. Key phrase there is “he thinks I am.” I don’t know what your days may look like, but the devil can speak that lie of worthlessness in so many different ways. Maybe you are an empty nester, or recently retired and facing a new daily routine and needing ways to occupy your time. Perhaps your days are filled with chasing kids around the house and you’re struggling to feel like your days were productive and meaningful. Or maybe you have a job you love, but are struggling to make sure that job does not become your identity. Whatever your life looks like, the devil will find a way to tell you that you aren’t doing enough. The truth is that God is able to use us right now, no matter what our life looks like. He can make so much good come from our brokenness and our mess. The trick is to make sure we are listening to the right voice. It took me a long time to distinguish His voice, and even still some days it’s hard to hear Him over the noise. But I’ve learned that God’s voice does not criticize or judge. He is not cruel or malicious. His voice is calming and gentle. His voice is soft and patient. His voice is truth.

St. John focused on kindness, courtesy (politeness in your attitude and behaviors), and constant fidelity (constant faith). Can you imagine the kind of impact we can have on those around us if we just focus on those 3 things? Our society tells us that we have to be or do something extraordinary in order to make a difference in our world. What if society is wrong? I mean, this guy is a full-blown saint and he was kind, polite, and had faith in God. 

Um… that is totally doable! 

So why do we believe this lie that if our days are not filled with great accomplishments, we are worthless? 

St. John had big dreams for his life, one of which was to be ordained. He died before he was able to achieve that. His life shows us that God does not need us to have achieved amazing milestones, nor does He measure our worth by what we have accomplished. He wants to see what we have done with the time we have and watch us continue to strive to be the person He created us to be. He has a specific way He will use you to impact the world. 

So how do we focus on the truth? In my opinion, it comes down to how we are living each day. Take a look at how you are choosing to respond to the tough moments in your life. Try to seek the truth amidst the lies the devil will throw your way. Your daily choices and daily yes to God will have a bigger impact than you realize. If it helps, remember that St. John focused on these three things: being kind, courteous, and having constant faith. You can start there.
*Quote taken from http://catholicsaints.info/saint-john-berchmans/