By Jourdan Reynolds
“Hey, are you going to watch the season premiere of My Life as a Family Protagonist?” my friend asks.
“No way!” I respond. “I already live that life. Why would I want to watch it again on TV?”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” my friend replies. “Do you really think your life is a sitcom, and that you’re one of the main characters?” “Sometimes, I feel that way,” I answer.
The year 2017 has been a whirlwind for my family and me. My wife Gigi and I welcomed our first child, Giovani, into the world two months ago. Since then, we have made the “quick adjustment” to family life, and all that goes with it. (We got a crash course in parenting, with three separate medical issues that arose all within a month.) Thank God, everything is better now and we have a happy and content baby boy!
The imagined conversation above makes reference to a recent revelation that I’ve had within myself. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality test, I am an ENFJ. In short, what this means is that I dream to be the hero in the story a.k.a. “The Protagonist”!
As a child I dreamed of being a soldier carrying a wounded ally off the battlefield or a top-class athlete winning the championship for his team. However, unbeknownst to me, God had other plans for my life (even greater plans, I might add).
Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for all he has done for my family and me. Amidst trying to complete endless to-do lists, and enduring times of stress and little sleep, I believe God has always provided and shown the way, leaving me with feelings of joy and gladness.
Sometimes, though, I get frustrated with the monotony of going back and forth between the home and the office. If I quickly examine my life right at that moment, I don’t see any signs of heroism that I dreamed of experiencing. However, taking a closer look, I am in fact living my life as I always wanted. I find myself on the battlefield, defending my wife and child from the physical, psychological and spiritual dangers of the world. At the same time, I’m on the field, training and strengthening my virtues and self-discipline, in hopes of becoming the best version of myself.
God will always have our best interest in mind. He only wants the best for us and he wishes the utmost happiness upon our lives. We just need to trust in him and keep in constant communion with him in prayer and the sacraments. We may not get everything that we want (or what we think we want), but in his timing, God will happily surprise us. The Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen says it best, “Divinity is always where one least expects to find it.”
(Jourdan Reynolds, 24, is the secretary and bookkeeper at St. Mary of the Visitation Parish in Ottumwa.)
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