Thursday, July 30, 2015

Happy 2nd Birthday In My Shoes

Today in my shoes turns 2! 

My life philosophy can be summed up in a few short words, “my origin is Love, my vocation is Love and my destiny is Love” or as Saint Paul tells us, “the most important of these is love.” 
Last night I was reflecting on the story of the prodigal son, and two things stood out that I want to share with you.  First, I mediated on how the Father sees his son returning while the son is still far, far away.  This description leads to the conclusion that the father must have been waiting for the return of his son.  Outside on his porch the father waited patiently for his wild, sinful son to return home.  Likewise God patiently waits for each of us to return to Him.  God too sits on His porch looking into the horizon hoping to see His children returning to Him out of our own freewill because love is freely given never demanded.  God doesn’t care how long you have been away or the things that you have done- nothing is too big to separate us from the love of God (SMILE)!  The prodigal son is famous for taking his inheritance and squandering it in all types of selfish, lustful, sinful ways.  Like us, the prodigal son is covered in dirty sin- but he has the humility to repent and seek his father for forgiveness.  His example of seeking his father even after he has been such a horrible son should motivate us to always seek God who never tires of forgiving us- for God is love and He waits for us every single day.  And am sure He throws a party and the angels rejoice every time a person returns to the Kingdom of God.
The other thing that caught my attention in the Prodigal Son Parable was something the father tells his other son, the son who has been with his father working diligently all of his life.  The second son gets angry at his father’s reaction toward the return of his troubled brother.  He confronts his father and asks him why he’s throwing a party for his brother when it’s him who has been loyal all of his life.  I absolutely love the response of the father, “my son you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.”  In this story we often focus on the prodigal son because we can easily identify with his sin, repentance and need for forgiveness; but, for those who have been following Christ for years (if not all of your lives) we can get this entitled attitude and get mad or envious when others get blessed.  Yet, last night, God showed me something that I had never captured in my multiple readings of this story, “everything I have is yours.”  God has given us everything including Himself!  Father Sergio says that if we knew how many blessings we dismiss because we are not open to God we would cry.  The responsible son has been with his father all of his life, yet I imagined he never asked his dad for a calf to celebrate with his friends and now he’s bitter because his dad is throwing a party in honor of his brother’s return.  How many times do we let fear, pride or sin keep us from asking God to bless us? Or because of fear, pride and sin we don’t accept His blessing?  God is rich in forgiveness and rich in generosity, but we must make a decision to seek Him out of our own freewill.  We must open our hearts to Him.
Big Thank You, from Penny & Dollar!

Last night, during adoration I was so consumed in this story seeing a lot of things for the very first time and I was so happy thinking of nothing else.  Maybe because I was so at peace and my mind was on God, I was able to clearly hear His voice and His words caused me to smile BIG.  I looked at the monstrance and just smiled at Him whispering, “You are good God- You got me good.”  I think by now you know that I struggle a lot in my spiritual journey with this feeling that I am wasting my life and over the past three days the negative feeling returned and God annihilated it with Psalm 23 - just the first verse; “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”  Here I was engrossed in the story of the prodigal son and out of nowhere the Spirit of God comes and gives me peace beyond understanding.  The biblical verse made so much sense to me because I am in the hands of God and under the wings of His providence.  God loves us so much! He really does and that is what I hope you gather from these ramblings.  God loves you to infinity and beyond.  “Your origin is Love, your vocation is Love and your destiny is Love!”

I love you in Christ!  Thanks for reading and cheers to another year gone by…           

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