Something Better

“The difference between a good scientist and a great scientist is learning when to keep hitting the hammer on an idea and when to let go.”

That was what my committee member told me after I shared what I would deem to be one of my most exciting results of my entire career. It has been a few months since she told me this idea, but I keep coming back to it. She was talking about my advisor’s project at the time, but the concept can be applied to so many other things.

She thought my advisor was great because he trusted in his hypothesis, which I have written about before, but I think she was missing something crucial.

She missed how my advisor approached his hypothesis.

In my lab, we are taught to design experiments that are meant to disprove our hypothesis or reveal something new. We are not supposed to design experiments that only have results when our hypothesis is correct. In fact, our experiments are designed in order to reveal multiple levels: yes, no, or anything in between.

We do not exclude the unpredictable. We do not disregard surprises.

We have expected results, but when they do not come, we do not throw the unexpected out of the window. We test those new results, those new ideas, and we create new models which explain the world as it really is.

So, if I were to rephrase my committee member’s statement, I would say that, “the difference between a good scientist and a great scientist is learning how to let go of one’s expectations in order to make room for something better.”

But that is not just in science.

We all get fixated on certain things. Most of us learn how to let go of whatever it is that consumes our thoughts. However, many of us also fail to truly let go. We sit in our rooms wondering, “what if?” as if there would ever be an answer.

But there never will be.

Because what if’s do not change what happened.

I know scientists, even former scientists, who continue to think about projects they worked on as a graduate student or how the project of their former post doc would fare had they stayed in the lab. Some have even told me that they lose sleep on occasion because an old idea comes in to their heads.

Even though something wonderful, such as a cover article in a top tier journal, is sitting in their lap, they still wonder what would have happened if they got the results they were looking for.

Great scientists are willing to let go of their expectations in order to make room for something better.

Great Saints are willing to let go of their expectations in order to make room for something better.

How?

Regardless of if you are a scientist, a teacher, a homemaker, a doctor, a lawyer, a manager, you are all called to be Saints. Therefore, this act of letting go in order to make room for something better, this act which is shared by scientists and Saints alike, is something that each human being has the capacity for.

Faith.

Faith is not just this blind trust that everything is going to work out exactly the way we want it to. If anything, faith is a lot like a well-designed experiment. When we choose to trust in The Lord, we open ourselves up to anything and everything that He wants to give us.

We should not exclude the unpredictable. We should not disregard surprises nor miracles.

Like a well-designed experiment, living a life of faith allows for all possibilities. Sometimes that means our lives follow a path we desire, but it might not look exactly as we pictured  it. Sometimes that means we do not receive what we desire. Sometimes that means that we do receive everything we ever dreamed of.

But like science, a life of faith never looks exactly as you pictured it.

It might be similar, but when our lives are entrusted to God, they are even better than we imagined.

I say this like it is easy to simply entrust our ideas, our dreams, our little annoyances to God. However, anyone who knows me knows that I am always trying to do something to “help” Him help me. I constantly pray novenas and do little devotions and beg Him to tell me what is going on. Much as a graduate student can pester their advisor for new assays and opportunities instead of trying to succeed with what they had, I spend most of my prayer time begging God for something new.

Even if God wanted to give me something new, there was not enough room in my world for additional grace. I would need to let go of something.

I have a lot of all-consuming thoughts.

How could I let go?

I think the main issue that many of us have with entrusting our concerns to God is that we do not know Him well enough. It takes a lifetime to truly know and love Christ, and even then, we will not know Him fully until we reach Heaven. Trust often requires a certain level of familiarity, of knowing that the person we are entrusting our concerns to would be able to understand our needs.

So then, when we struggle with anything in this life, and we are struggling to understand the man who died for us, to whom do we share our struggles? Who will understand us?

Mary, the Mother of God.

Allow me to explain how that works.

Imagine Mary at the foot of the Cross. There was her Son, her beautiful Son, covered in blood and tears, and she could not do anything to stop the pain. Even if she knew that this would happen to Jesus, she knew that she could not help Him anymore. He would die on the Cross. And with Him, her vocation, her life, her heart…

Mary was a mother, and now she would be a child-less widow.

Then her Son looked down on her, with more love and anguish than any soul could know, and He gave her a family. Because Jesus’ Bride is The Church, His family would never cease to exist. Mary would always be a mother, even if her Son did not walk on the Earth anymore.

Regardless of if Mary knew or understood that Jesus would resurrect in three days, she knew in that moment that her role as the Mother of the Messiah was far better than she ever could ever dream.

And she accepted that better reality.

She accepted us.

Source: Heroes of Virtue

Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, knows our ache because she knows the ache of her Son. Moreover, she loves us as our mother. She is our mother forever. This peasant girl allowed God to save us from our sins, and she allowed us to become our children as well.

In her darkest hour, Jesus fulfilled her deepest desire: to love Him forever.

She loves us forever too.

As I have said a thousand times over, I have several all-consuming thoughts. At the Vigil Mass for Our Lady of Sorrows, I heard the Gospel about Our Lady at the Cross. My heart broke when I realized that Mary wanted to love me, but I wasn’t letting her in. I asked the Blessed Mother to take one of my consuming thoughts. It was something that hurt my heart from time to time, and I could not allow it to continue its course through my heart.

From that evening on, my mind has been surprisingly silent.

Mary took my concern, and she is taking care of the problem. I am not perfect, and I think about it from time to time, but I do not feel like there are only two possibilities anymore. Much like a well-designed experiment, I realized that maybe my idea has some truth, but it might look different. Through Mary, Jesus will make my dreams far better than I can imagine.

There is always something better Dear Reader.

And Mama knows where to find it.