Our Daily Bread ( Kairos Global, May 2026, Issue 98 )

Title: Living Tapestry

Intro

When confronted with impossible situations, we need God’s favour – grace to guide us through, writes Anil Israel.

Highlight

When confronted with humanly seeming impossible situations in life, only supernatural favour – divine grace – can take us through. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). Am I willing to seek His grace? Am I willing to rely on His grace? 

Article

We all want the best –the best food, the best dress, the best job, the best life partner, the best home, the best salary, the best holiday package, the best offer, the best gadget, the best tool, the list goes on. We are unwilling to settle for anything less. Our hearts are helplessly restless, unless we rest in the best.

This inner craving for the ultimate supreme is part of divine design, for we are His best masterpiece. He made us for Himself. God ensured that our thirst for the infinite, is perhaps the only way we would revert ourselves back to Him. For finite things can never quench the soul’s longing for the infinite.

What keeps humans on the move? Man’s desire for excellence. There is always a desire to create something that can make life more comfortable, more enjoyable, more elevated. Technological advances are the fruits of man’s unending quest for greatness. You were not created for comfort; you were made for greatness (Pope Benedict XVI). 

The Old Testament people attempted to make a structure of immense magnitude. Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves (Genesis 11:4). When greatness is perceived in the realm of the visible reality, man confines his pursuit to making a name for himself.

God, being invisible divinity, instilled in us a desire for greatness in the invisible reality – raising our weighed down souls to the heights of sanctity. We are not created for mediocrity but for magnanimity. We are not meant to quit the spiritual battle, but to emerge victorious and claim the crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4).

We are not created for temporal greatness; we are created for eternal greatness. God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful (Mother Teresa). Am I striving to be faithful or successful? Worldly success demands one engage in the ways of the world. To be faithful, on the other hand, would require us to disengage with the ways of the world.

The life of a Christian is a life of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). To walk by faith is like walking on water. Humanly speaking, this is an impossible task. We cannot do it on our own. Since faith is a theological virtue, meaning it is divinely infused in our soul, we need divine assistance to live a life of faith. We need to rely on supernatural power from on high (Luke 24:49). This is a human-divine partnership. He is the operator and we are to be the co-operator. We need heavenly guidance. Guidance says: G-U-I-dance God, U and I dance.

We need God’s favour. Grace is unearned favour. There are several verses in the Bible where we find the plea, ‘if I have found favour in your sight’ then, things have come to pass. Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8). Joseph found favour in his sight (Genesis 39:4). David found favour (1 Samuel 16:22). Esther found favour (Esther 4:15). Mary found favour (Luke 1:30). Peace to those on whom his favour rests (Luke 2:14). We need God’s favour to rest on us, to peacefully steer through the storms of life. 

When confronted with humanly seeming impossible situations in life, only supernatural favour – divine grace – can take us through. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). Am I willing to seek His grace? Am I willing to rely on His grace? 

It is often tempting to rely on oneself, the seemingly easy way out. Our past achievements and experiences teach us to rely on them. If we can rely on proven paths of progress, then we don’t see the need to rely on untraversed paths. But we fail to perceive that a former success was relevant at a certain point in time, in a certain framework or set of conditions. What worked then, need not necessarily be the best approach now. For now, the times and seasons might have changed. Now, with a different level of maturity, the Lord would be counting on me, to count more on Him and less on me. 

Generative intelligence leans on learning patterns from existing data. Relying on reusing proven techniques and methods may save time, when it comes to matters of this world. When it comes to matters of the soul, prudence would prompt us to consider relying on the creator of the soul rather than relying on things created by creatures themselves. 

Pope Leo XIV urged priests not to use AI to write their homilies. Artificial intelligence will never be able to share faith in the way authentic homilies that give genuine spiritual witness. Spiritual matters like measure of love, power of forgiveness, value of virtues, deserve to be dealt with in the light of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63).

We are all writing the story of our lives. There is a limit imposed on the level of creativity that can emerge when one relies solely on already created stuff. We aren’t meant to dampen or quench the spirit of creativity at our disposal. When we invite God to co-author the story of our lives, our co-operation with divine direction far surpasses human comprehension.  

When a young boy was allowed to take a handful of sweets, he wisely permitted the generous larger hand of the giver be used instead of his own tiny hand. Relying on the power from above, yields glorious results. ‘Grace is participation in the life of God’ (CCC 1997). Am I willing to let God participate in weaving a living tapestry of my life? With Him, life is simply at its best.

Anil Israel lives in Mannheim, Germany with his wife Sunitha and their 6 children.