Our desire to please God...pleases God

"I believe that the desire to please you (God) does, in fact, please you."

Thomas Merton

We had this prayer last night at our first Spiritual Direction class and I woke up this morning comforted by it.  The desire to please God is definitely there, but my efforts seem bumbling and clumsy.  I talk too much.  I can't find the article we are supposed to be discussing. It's certainly been a while since I've prepared for a class! But the desire!  My desire is to do it well for God's sake (literally!)  In many of our endeavors we may feel we come up short.  But our desire is to do it for God and to be doing God's will.  And God loves that.  Today, we just may need to trust that we are in the right place to do what God wants us to do.  And the fact that we are there with eagerness and joy are what makes God the happiest!  Blessings on your Thursday! Love, heidi

God so loved...

"God so loved the world..."

John 3:16

 

This is such a familiar scripture that we may sometimes take it for granted.  On "Pray-As-You-Go" this morning, they invited us to just sit with this first part.  Five words that we can savor for the whole day.  We cannot comprehend the love God has for us.  We just aren't wired to think that big.  But we are wired to seek and yearn for the very love that God has for us. "All human longing is longing for God," wrote Goethe.  Our deepest longings are not for the latest technology or 347 cable channels.  Our deepest desires are for God.  God made us that way and we cannot feel real peace and contentment until we sit with that love--however we can embrace it.  Friends, if I have learned anything over the past several years it is that, God is really all we have.  And God is really all we need and want.  It sounds simple, I know.  But it takes a lifetime to appreciate.  As part of figuring all that out, I begin an exciting new adventure later today.  I am beginning a Spiritual Direction training program that will take me two years to finish and the rest of my life to really learn!  I humbly ask for your prayers.  This is something I feel I've waited for my whole life and has been the deepest desire of my heart for as long.  So, thank you and thanks be to God!  Love, heidi

Today! Now!

"To the servant of God, every place is the right place, and every time is the right time."

St. Catherine of Siena

 

Happy St. Catherine Day to all who share her name! (My Confirmation name is Catherine).  This message today is something I continually need to hear and affirm.  I tend to put things off until a "better" time.  I begin sentences with, "When I retire..." But, like St. Catherine, for me the time is now.  What can I do today to make the world better, in this place (Idaho Falls) in this time (April 29, 2014)? The message I received last summer on retreat was so powerful for me.  The message was that any vocation can be a spiritual vocation if done with love and for the glory of God.  A ticket taker at the movies can have a spiritual vocation if done as above.  Don't wait for a better time to live for God...live for God this very day!  So, I have my schedule for the day; places to go and people to see.  Each one of those encounters gives me a chance to love people and work for God.  Every person is the right person and every place is the right place for me to serve God today.  Lord, I give you my day in this place, with these people. Help me to do MY best to do YOUR work.  Love, heidi

Tell him!

"Although you have not seen him you love him..."

1 Peter 1:8

 

As my mother used to say, "This is true."  Now, more than ever, I love him.  And I have such an experience of Jesus' presence in my everyday life.  So, I may not be seeing Jesus, but I certainly have an experience of Presence.  In times of silence and solitude, as well as, in times of community and gathering, I feel such a Presence.  And I had a wonderful experience of both this past weekend!  As was suggested to us by the mystics we studied this Lent, tell Jesus you love him.  Talk to him like a friend.  Confide in Jesus.  Even though you may not see him, you love him.  Tell him so!  Love, heidi