Month: September 2023

One of the greatest dangers in spiritual life is to fall into the trap of auto-salvation, the conviction that we can be saved through our own heroic moral effort. The principal problem with such a strategy is that it results in the strengthening of the very egotism that we hope to overcome.

What is your mission, your calling? Our highest purpose is to love and as we love God, our true nature is uncovered to love each other as ourselves.  This is building God’s Kingdom and how we spread the good news.

Lately I’ve been pondering how my perspective is one of scarcity rather than abundance. I’m waking up to this mindset through God’s living word that speaks to me through prayer and scripture during our time together each morning. My recent request to God has been to be loyal and faithful in all the circumstances of my life. This desire of mine has been one of many throughout the ages. 

Today is my 15th Wedding Anniversary to a man who fulfills all the promises of what I hoped marriage would be.  I’m blessed beyond measure to be in an intimate communion of life and love with this kind, generous, supportive man that I respect and love dearly. 

As an extrovert who is high energy and who likes to get things accomplished, I have to be mindful when I need to slow down, recharge, and be still to counter the busyness I naturally gravitate towards. I recently heard a talk on the “busyness epidemic” of our world today and its impact on us finding meaning and purpose.  It’s in the silence where we connect with our true self, where we can be still and know ourselves and who we are. 

The mind is a terrible thing to waste. I remember the days of PSAs, with the egg-searing in a hot pan helping us visualize our brains on drugs being particularly memorable.  I agree with this message when it comes to drugs and alcohol and the devastating effects they have on the development of our brains. But not so much on the spiritual journey.

We are to nurture what is good in our life. By the mercy of God, we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, not conforming to this age but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, able to discern the will of God and determine what is good, pleasing, and perfect. 

God is love. 1 John 4:7-8

No one knows the father like the Son, because he emerged from the bosom of the Trinitarian mystery that John says is love. Notice that John doesn’t say God shows love but rather states that “God is love”. This is a huge distinction. 

Do you think God ever asks “Don’t you want to meet me as I am?” We all want to be truly seen and known. But God is beyond our understanding yet invites us, actually insists on drawing us closer in relationship. 

Who is the Lord, that I should hate him?  Exodus 5:2

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 10:7

Jesus came to revolutionize our idea of God. All the ways that people of His time were taught to think were systematically undermined by His teachings and parables. They disassembled the structure of the day and emphasized the idea that the holy is the place to find God. Remember how He overturned the tables in the Temple before His Passion, stating that this was no longer the place to find God?