In Touch, In the Presence, In the Moment

God is everywhere whether we are thinking of Him or not.

Even when we are not focused upon Him, He is still with each of us. It might be difficult to experience the FULL effect of God, but we can still experience Him whether or not we are sensing His presence.

It is hard to see the fullness of a skyscraper when you stand right next to it. You can only see one, maybe two sides and not very high up...in fact, from your perspective it might almost look flat when you look up at it instead of having dimension. God is like that. He is so grand, so wonderful, so much, that when we are right next to Him our smallness is almost a lonely sensation. That doesn't mean He is any less there with me, but I might not be fully experiencing the awe and beauty of Him that I would see from a little more distance. However, if I am too far distant, I won't see Him at all.

If you are teaching children or being a parent or whatever you are doing, you are working WITH God, bearing fruit, just because you don't sense His presence doesn't mean He isn't right there with you and guiding you.Thinking OF Him, isn't always the central part of being with Him and knowing Him.

Sometimes you might be right next to Him, but not sense his presence. It isn't because He is not there, it isn't necessarily because you have done something wrong. Perhaps it is simply because He is so big and has filled your life so much, that you have no emptiness to compare it to, then when you step even slightly away that emptiness is the most empty you have ever felt.

However, sin also gets in the way of fully experiencing God's presence here on earth. The lonely, emptiness we might feel in the place where God belongs feels only temporarily filled when we put things of this earth there. We have to have some knowledge of God in order to fill that place with Him to know for certain that it is God we are filling it with. I guess what I am trying to say is that we have to be careful that we aren't confusing God's presence with any general pleasurable experience. Then, we might come to worship the experience rather than worshipping God.

I think that thinking on him requires knowing him and knowing him requires thinking on him. You can't have one without the other...But at the same time, we can't expect to think any of us know him perfectly either. The mind of God is far greater than I can conceive, and yet, it is in attempting to know him more that I grow closer to him and develop my relationship with him.

But if I spend all my time thinking on him, and no time working...

Here is an example that might help: I tell my husband I love him. I think about him all the time. I talk to him. I tell him I love him. If I do that, he is glad that I love him and knows that I love him, but if that is ALL I do, then he doesn't really know the fullness of my love. If he came home to a messy house and no dinner and when he asked, "What did you do today?" and I said, "I thought about how much I love you! I talked to you on the phone. I wrote about you on the computer. I love you so much!" I think he might be ...disappointed?

Yes, it is wonderful that I love him, but it is so much more wonderful when I SHOW him my love for him by doing things that need to be done. I might not be THINKING of my husband while I am in the midst of doing these things, but deep inside I know it is for his ultimate joy and the strengthening of our love that I do these things.I think of God in the same way. I need to pray to Him, I love to experience Him, but because I love Him, I want to do for Him as well. That doesn't mean I will be able to bask in my contemplation of him all the time. Sometimes doing for my husband is doing for God. Sometimes, doing for my children, or my neighbor or my stepmother or sometimes...holding my tongue when I was trying to be helpful and directed the woman at the school to where the fundraiser boxes were and she nastily said, "THANK YOU" in the tone of "I don't want or need your help." All of these things can be serving God even if you aren't concentrating on HIM.... (actually, I was concentrating on him quite hard during the last one....lol).

But, in the quiet moments, I need to think on Him so that in the moments that are not quiet I can hopefully respond more naturally in the way he might approve of. It is His approval I should be seeking, not that of the world.

God bless

Why! You're Almost a Christian!

I know I tend to write heavy posts, but even though this isn't heavy...it has been on my heart to share this story from the Bishop today. Any errors in the relating of the story are mine...

The Bishop often has to face people who have a misunderstanding of what Catholic means or what we mean when we say we are Catholic. One of the stories he shared with us in the past had to do with a funny, friendly Southern Baptist woman who (bless her heart) had decided that the Bishop needed some good old fashioned 'converting'.

She started earnestly explaining to him who Jesus was and telling him that Mary was "only Jesus' mom" not God or anything. He smiled and nodded and responded mildly to her statements by saying, "Yes, Mary was Jesus' mom. No, Old Catholic's don't believe she was co-redemptrix. Yes, we consider her a saint, but then again, doesn't the Bible call her 'blessed among women'?" She told him why infant baptism was wrong (he explained why it wasn't). She explained why praying to "dead people doesn't do anything" and he explained that praying for others to pray for you is inviting those saints to pray with you for God's intervention and doesn't she believe that those saints live through Christ?

After she went through her entire conversion litany...I suppose you could say a light came on over her head and she declared to him, "Why! You're almost a Christian!"

I wonder how often we all judge the state of one another's salvation...and isn't declaring whether someone is a Christian or not doing just that?

Sharing the Good news is just that...sharing the good news of Christ's rebirth and our ability to be reborn with him through our repentance. Let us all repent and share the GOOD NEWS that HE IS RISEN, HE IS KING and we brothers and sisters are one in his body. Let us not let our divisions seperate the body, but let our individual gifts bring ever greater glory to Him instead.

Alleluia! God bless!

My Relationship with God

I love God. He is my parent, mother and father. He is my comforter, he is who I turn to when I am hurting. He is a strict parent, he lets me suffer the consequences for my poor behaviors if I am not 'getting it', but he also forgives my mistakes, especially when I see the error of my ways.Sometimes, it is necessary for him to let me suffer for others actions. Whether those actions were actions of love that were mistakes or were actions of fear that were intended harm. Ultimately that can be so others can learn from their mistakes or because of some reason that I might not understand (now or ever). Someday I might see why, or I might not. That is ok with me because I know that God wants what is best for me.

I know that he cares for us and that He will make the right decisions regarding judgment. It is not my place to make those determinations for anyone else. I might argue for or against their case, but I accept God's judgement whatever I might think the ultimate judgement should be. There are some who will not be able to tolerate God's presence and similar to the way that Moses went temporarily blind when turning his face to God, they will suffer greater than that when coming into His presence. In the way that a drowing victim struggles against the lifeguard who comes to rescue, they will ultimately suffer more if they do not trust Him.

I know that I am not completely with God at this time. There is an emptiness inside of me that he wants to fill, but I choose too often to fill it with things of this world instead of Him. When I fill it with Him, I feel the peace that passes all understanding and I know that whatever happens, God's will is my greatest joy. When I doubt God's perfect love, then my fear causes me to be angry, hurt, resentful, and/or afraid of myself and my fellow man. When I am in God's perfect presence and he has cleansed away all of my hurts and resentment for others, like a parent cleansing away the dust and dirt from an injury that needs a band aid... when He has done that, then I will only feel his perfect love and that will be heaven.

I have come to realize that we appreciate nothing unless we have to sacrifice something of ourselves for it. I can understand why God wanted sacrifice from us...so that we would appreciate Him. I make sacrifices every day for my family. They might not be great sacrifices, I certainly don't resent them in any way, but no matter how small they are, they are still sacrifices. Each sacrifice I make shows the person that I make it for that I don't just say I love them, I mean it. Perfect love is in not considering that sacrifice sacrificial, but a joy and opportunity to do something for someone you care for. God wants that relationship with me and I want that relationship with him.

God bless you and may your relationship with Him grow.