Seeing and hearing

A blind man who sees is better than a seeing man who is blind.

Lord, guide us to always see and hear, even though at times we are not looking or listening.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, they hear.

Matthew 13:16

The Trouble with God?

C. S. Lewis wrote, before his spiritual conversion, to a friend. “The trouble with God, is that He is like a person who never acknowledges your letters and so, in time, you come to the conclusion either that He does not exist or that you have got His address wrong.”

After his conversion, he wrote, “What if God has already answered our letters and telegrams in His own love-letter written 2000 years ago, but we have not bothered to check our mailbox and discover it?”

MYCHAL PRAYER

Lord take me where You want me to go; Let me meet who You want me to meet; Tell me what You want me to say; 
AND
Keep me out of Your way.

Father Mychal Judge, NYC Fire Dept. Chaplain
Killed Sept. 11, 2001

When counsel is given

Advice or words of warning must be spoken with a consciousness of our own common guilt. It is not to judge others or set ourselves up as moral judges of anyone; however, it is our duty to speak the warning words when they need to be spoken. We must never regard anyone as hopeless because of the changing power of Christ.

Romans 14:21-23

At this time of the year, be considerate for those that may struggle with a pleasure that for them may cost them everything.

A person may come to the conclusion that their Christian freedom gives them a right to make a reasonable choice of consuming alcohol, a simple pleasure to them, without the danger of consequences. For others, that choice can be a fatal thing. While in their presence, are we to limit our self, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the one that could fall?

Emotions of the moment

Mark 10:17-22


The young aristocrat, in the moment of overflowing emotions, came running and fell at the feet of Jesus, desiring to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Replying that he had obeyed the laws and had never harmed anyone, but Jesus looked at him and loved him and said “Go and sell everything and follow Me.” The young rich man walked away grieved, because he had many possessions.

How many times have I run to Jesus filled with the emotions of the moment, only to walk away when the moment has passed? Have I fallen at His feet, desiring His touch, His counsel, only to limit Him as to where He may touch or lead?

I believe that Jesus was saying to the young ruler, “It’s not about what you have done, but what have you done for others?” If we keep all the laws, yet do not love one another then we have failed at the very essence of what it means to follow Christ.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. I believe it was a look of grief. Jesus saw the man deliberately choose not to be what he had within him to be. W.B. wrote, Jesus looks at us with the appeal of love and with the challenge to live the Christian life. God grant that He may never have to look at us with sorrow because we have refused to be what we might have been.

In the Waiting

I wish that God spoke to me like He spoke to Moses, “mouth to mouth”. I desire to be certain that I have heard His voice. Sometimes we hear only to see things not fulfilled in our timing. Like Abraham, who was promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, looked upon the night sky and had to wonder, “Did I not hear, was I wrong?” because he remained fatherless. A.S. Peake wrote, “The courage to abandon work on which one’s heart is set and accept inaction as the will of God is of the rarest and highest kind and can be created and sustained only by the clearest spiritual vision.”

As we wait, the time can be best spent strengthening our relationship with God by hearing, from the reading of His word and through prayer to bring into focus our spiritual vision.” Lord, give us that rarest and highest form of faith, to believe when our eyes, for the moment cannot see.