A God Among Humans?

May 3, 2016May 3, 20161 Comment

“Suffering is redemptive in part because it definitively reveals to man that he is not in fact God, and it thereby opens the human person to receive the divine.”

Whoo! This quote made my head do a mini explosion this morning when I opened my Franciscan Media Minute Meditation email. It was like a thousand proto-thoughts collided into a tiny epiphany. If you know the movie “The Matrix” (1999) then you know when Neo is first learning how they load new information with a stick poked into his brain and so they start to teach him different ways to fight and he learns now to do it in, like, five seconds so he opens his eyes all freaked-out like he can hardly believe it would happen so fast, and he goes, “I know kung fu!” I had a, “I know kung fu!,” moment when I read that quote.

Oh, the striving to be God-like that so many people do! Perfectionist trying to attain something they never can have. Control freaks trying to take-over everything but themselves. Type-A personalities who never think anything is good enough. (No hate…I’m all of those things – they’re just examples.) What do all of those personality traits cause? When you really think about it – they cause suffering. Why? Because we aren’t God but we are trying to act like it.

God had to come down into a wimpy people body (Jesus) so that we would understand that even He would have suffering as a human due to its bodily earthly confines. And through that illustration of trust – even through the darkest of times – we are shown a path to a closer relationship with God by allowing the hole that suffering creates to be filled by the divine. In essence, the void that is created by all the taking away of self that happens through suffering creates an opening to be filled by God’s love. Yowza.

That just reminded me how the whole process it a little bit like the Japanese art of Kintsugi. It’s where they fix broken pottery with gold. Instead of trying to cover-up a crack, they accentuate it with something precious and beautiful. So it’s like WE are the pottery and we suffer (get cracks) but then those cracks become part of our beauty because they get filled with gold (God’s love) that would never have been put there unless there was brokenness (suffering) to begin with. Then, by the end of the whole process, we’re even fancier than how we started out! I like it. I like it a LOT.

So take your “paws to pray” today and visualize God filling your broken bits with His golden love. You can incorporate it into a breathing meditation: breathe out to a count of four and breathe in for a count of six as you visualize pulling golden light in through your nostrils. Pull the golden light deeper into your body each time you inhale and let it seep into those little cracks and crevices that life creates in you. Once you have let the gold settle into your body, then take a moment to thank God for His healing love that make you better than you ever were on your own.

Featured Image credit: Franciscan Media Minute Meditations

“Where I Am Right Now”

May 1, 2016May 2, 2016Leave a comment

“Where I am Right Now” by Jared Anderson

I absolutely love this song. Not only is it a toe-tappin’ tune, but it reminds me of one of my favorite sayings:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Teddy Roosevelt

Whenever I get too type-A and hard on myself, I remind myself of that quote so I can slow down all the “should” statements bouncing around in my head. Because how can you expect yourself to do more than what you can do? It doesn’t even make sense to think you can! But there are a lot of us that still try to do it on a daily basis.

So the line in the song that goes, “And the enemy tells that lie, That I’m missing out on a better life,” especially hits home for me because if I’m focused on things I can’t even do (the “should” nags), that dialogue definitely isn’t coming from God. Even the small things we do, as long as it is done with great love (paraphrased from Blessed Mother Theresa) are what God asks us to do…big and grandiose makes only for earthly rewards.

The next time that you find you are comparing yourself with the Jones’ take a moment to evaluate your true situation…some days you really can only function at 80% of your absolute best, and that’s okay because it is what where you are at that day. Just make sure that you recognize the difference between avoidance and self-preservation. We all need a break from running at our maximum from time-to-time, however, make sure to identify whether you are doing it to re-energize your mission of serving God or if it is to avoid being a servant of God. As with so many things about faith…it is the intention that is most important.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to be present as you listen to Jared Anderson’s song. Make your “paws to pray” for the day a self-evaluation of where you are right now.

From Novice to Bodybuilder

April 29, 2016May 3, 2016Leave a comment

A 40-Day Spiritual Workout for Catholics by Bob Rice (2013)

I facilitated an at-home spiritual retreat using this book with my church. We started January 1st as a New Year’s Resolution. It was a cute play-on-words since so many people’s New Year’s resolution is to workout for physical health, we were doing it to improve our spiritual health. And since any workout is difficult to maintain without a little motivation, having an accompanying online blog was a wonderful addition. We all really supported each other to keep going for the whole 40 days as well as go more in-depth into the author’s reflections.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about this book! Bob Rice created such a thoughtful progression from day to day that he really did foster a deeper connection to the traditions of the Catholic faith. I kept having so many ah-ha, light bulb moments that it started to get humorous almost. One of the things that can be hard for a lot of people is to move their faith from their heads to their hearts. But, on Day 12, Mr. Rice provided such beautiful imagery of what our reception into Heaven would be like, it provoked very deep emotions for me. The next time I was at Communion, I had a much stronger connection to what I was taking part in. Others in my online group mentioned similar connections throughout.

So whether you are able to read this book as a group (which I HIGHLY recommend) or on your own, I suggest that your spiritual growth is worth the 40 days. I plan on doing another cycle through it, too – since there are always little details that you don’t necessarily pick-up on the first time through a book. Not-to-mention, you are always at a different stage of your spiritual journey, for messages to hit you from another direction. But that’s the fun part that makes religion “alive”!

Paws to Pray

If not now, then when?

Tag: Prayer