Desire to change--first!

"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!"
Romans 6:15

This was thought-provoking for me today. Sometimes we can get so comfortable in the sin-forgiveness model. God's forgiveness is so vast and God's grace so wonderful that we can get complacent. We attended a Fire Rally years ago and one of the talks still stands out in my mind. A sister told of going to Reconciliation one time and, as usual, had the same old list of offenses. It had become routine. The priest, sensing this in her, and possibly, tired of hearing the same old list of sins, pulled back the reigns. No, he told her, I am not going to absolve you this time. You need to get to the bottom of why you do the same sinful things and actually make an effort to stop. Can you imagine? She said she felt as though she walked out of the confessional with a huge letter "U" around her neck (for UN-absolved). But, she said it really helped her turn a corner in her walk with God. We need to ask ourselves if we have gotten a bit lax in the areas of our lives we need to work on. Do we go to Reconciliation with the same old list, get that Forgiven card and then walk out, ready to do it all again? St. Paul knew exactly what that was about and he wrote about it to the Romans here in this scripture. We need to go into Reconciliation with the fervor to change our behavior, before we even ask for forgiveness. The desire to change is essential to the process! Love heidi

Laborers are few?

"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."
Luke 10:2

It used to be, when I read this, the "laborers" were those who entered the religious life. I thought that the only laborers were priests and nuns! Ha! Not so fast! God certainly has a bigger imagination than that! Now, I can see that we are all called to be laborers in one way or another. We are all called to go out into the world and do God's work; feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, the naked and the prisoners. We are the workers for the harvest. What we are asking God to do is stir up our hearts and align our will with God's will. We need to realize our call doesn't depend on what we can do, but what God can accomplish through us. Our call doesn't have anything to do with our abilities at all. Only God can give us what we need to do the work. The only skill we need is the ability to surrender ourselves and listen to God. Today, let's think of ourselves as the laborers God needs to harvest the field. What does God call us to do today? Love, heidi

Of greed and grain...

"Take care to guard against all greed, for one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."
Luke 12:15

If the last few years have taught us anything, it is that wealth can be fleeting. That grain we stored into silos seem to drain out overnight and what we thought we had stored was no longer there. And what did we learn from that? Many people have learned to live on less and be actually satisfied with less. Many people have learned to share because they have realized that others have even less than they have. It is a struggle, but a valuable struggle with a valuable lesson. There is something so much more important than the stored-up grain in our silos! Yesterday, Fr. Dan said such a powerful thing. He said, "What you have may belong to Caesar, but who you are belongs to God." Let's think a bit about who we are and not so much about what we have. We belong to God and that is so much more fabulous than what we have. Love, heidi

Find a sparrow...

"Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God..."
Luke 12:6

I actually thought of this reading this summer as I gazed at the tree in my neighbor's backyard. Oh, I didn't tell you about the tree? Well, after my retreat, I got more in the habit of just sitting in my backyard, in silence. I finally noticed, after living here four years, a beautiful pine tree towering over my yard. It has pine cones that hang from the branches like Christmas ornaments. Somehow, I had never noticed it! One day, as I sat out there, the sun was just coming up, shining extra light right on that tree. I noticed a small bird, in what I presumed to be a nest, deep in the branches. I watched that bird for a long time, just appreciating that it had chosen that tree to nest. I thought of that tiny bird and how God was completely aware of that bird and how precious that creature was to God. It was so special for me to have this front row seat to God's creation, right here in my backyard! It was a gift. The gift was the awareness, finally, of all that was going on around me, that I hadn't really noticed before and wouldn't have noticed ever, had I not gone on retreat and learned about just sitting still with God. This weekend, take any opportunity to notice a "sparrow" in your world. Find the time to see and appreciate some tiny, yet profound manifestation of God. Love, heidi

Join your soul...

"I wait with longing for the Lord, my soul waits for his word.
My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak."
Psalm 130:5-6

I was thinking about this today and it seems to me that, sometimes, my soul is a separate entity to me. I'm busy, running around, doing what I do and my soul is quietly, patiently waiting for the Lord. It is always a wonderful experience when the rest of me quietly calms and waits, too. My soul definitely has the right idea! Today, let's think about our souls waiting and longing for the Lord. Can the rest of us join them? Can we spend some time today just sitting with the Lord, waiting and longing for God's word? Love, heidi

When God is silent...

"A wonderful thing about God's silence is that the contagion of His stillness gets into you and you become perfectly confident--'I know God has heard me.' His silence is the proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will bless you in answer to prayer."
Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest"

I know I've learned so much this year about my need for being silent, but what is this about God being silent? I don't want God to be silent! I want God's answers and assurances! I want God to be obviously present! We can't BOTH be silent, for cryin' out loud! Or can we? This reading made me think about the times I have prayed and prayed and the answers just didn't come. For a long time. It seemed as though God hadn't heard me. If God had heard me, why didn't the situation change? Why didn't I get what I wanted? What Oswald Chambers is trying to convey here, I think, is that God's message may come wrapped in silence. And, when that happens, those of us who really trust God will be able to see God's presence in that silence. God is silent, so He must be working on it. That is faith, my Friends! Today, let's think about the times we have experienced God's silence and praise God for it, as Oswald Chambers suggests in the rest of this reading. For if God can trust us with His silence, God truly speaks to us. Love, heidi