Posted on by Charly

Eve asked Adam, “Do you love me?”

“Who else?” He replied

The priest we have when we go to the cabin always has a funny story or joke. This weekend was no different. Our large family took up an entire pew at this little church and we tried hard not to be a spectacle, but completely failed. It seems it is inevitable that we get stares and do some entertaining during mass. Not in a disrespectful way but just naturally by having so many children. It seems it should be the one place where we shouldn’t get stares for having a large family. Unfortunately there are not a lot of young families at mass. I wonder if God is asking these missing families, “Do you love me?” I wonder if he is asking the families that are there, “Do you love me enough to share me with others?”  What if we told people about the love Jesus has for them?  If they really understood I don’t think they could stay away, even if they have a gaggle of children to tend to during mass.

I love the rosary almost as much as I love the mass. It gives me a peace that can only be from Jesus. However, I have always struggled with the mystery of the ascension. Why would Jesus leave? I’m sure the apostles struggled with this too.  They must have felt abandoned, lonely, confused, and maybe even unloved. We heard this past Sunday from the gospel of John chapter 14 verse 28; “If you loved me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the father is greater than I.” We are reminded in this to love Jesus. To rejoice in the fact that He is ascending to heaven. The very place He died to open for us. He has gone to be there with His father who is The Almighty. There is no question about His love for us. He even asks his father to send us an advocate, the Holy Spirit, so that we can be reminded of Jesus’ love for us and not use the fleeting feelings we as humans experience as an excuse to forget what He has taught us.

His love for us cannot be denied, it is our love for Him that falters. So as we prepare to celebrate Pentecost, the great gift of the Holy Spirit,  in just a couple of weeks I will be praying;

“Come Holy Spirit fill me with your love so I can trust in You.  So I can spread your love to others and encourage them boldly to love you back.  So we are all strengthened by your love and have no choice but to live in it and share it.”

 

Posted on by Charly

I Want it My Way

light switch

I can deny it but my humanity tends toward the motto; I want it my way.  It’s not easy to do life God’s way. I fail at it multiple times everyday but I continue to start again with Him as my guide. As much as I want my way to be right, without knowing and following Him it can’t be.

We are in a culture where it is “right” to let everyone make up their own rules. Whatever makes them happy they believe is right and they believe they have the right to do it.  As a parent, a friend, a Christian I don’t encourage people to do whatever makes them happy without first having the guidance of God.  God desires their happiness, and so do I,  but there are things that seem to make us happy and will actually bring us harm. We naturally tend to do what we believe will make us happy but without any guiding force that is all knowing we can’t even know what true happiness is.

I have to admit I am not a fan of the darkness of  being unhappy.  It is painful to suffer loss, hurt, illness or any other difficulties. Even just darkness itself is scary. Apparently my littlest one feels the same way. She will run excitedly down to her room but if the light is off she runs back with big eyes yelling “scary!”

She’s right. The dark is scary. You can’t see what is right in front of you. You can’t see if there is danger or wonderful surprises. The solution however is simple; turn on the light.  She may be too short to reach the switch but there is always someone around willing to help her.  I am thankful that everyone in her life at the moment wants to turn the light on and not mislead her into the darkness.  The powers the be in our world seem to want us to walk in the darkness, to make our own happiness by way of enjoying all of the pleasures of life without consequence.  There are consequences to doing things our own way.  The most significant of which is that we will not find true happiness in the eternal life.

Christians have the solution to this worlds darkness. Just as we turn on the light in a dark room we need to turn to God who is light.  The song “Turn to the Living God” comes to mind. It starts out with the title: “Turn, turn to the living God.”  The song continues with, “The God of mercy and justice..” And then it finishes up the chorus with, “and with delight he will turn to you, with delight he will turn to you.”

If we turn to Him not only will He turn to us but with DELIGHT He will turn to us!

He shines so bright that when He turns to us He will light us up with His love no matter the darkness that resides in us or around us. With that light we can then see what will lead us to happiness, we can shine a path for others, we can turn darkness into light, and we can see that what we truly desire is to let Him lead the way.