Losing is Gaining

“But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ…” Philippians 3: 7-8

Still complaining about daylight savings time? I still see people on facebook or hear people in person who say they have still not recovered from losing that one hour of sleep last Sunday morning. Really? I bet there are plenty of days that we waste a good hour’s worth of sleep watching TV, going on-line or watching movies. I bet there are plenty of times that we could’ve had more sleep had we not had homework to finish, sick children to take care or bad dreams that woke us up. And there are certainly plenty of times we voluntarily give up that hour of sleep to spend time with friends or family playing games or talking. The issue really isn’t losing that hour of sleep. The issue is what do we gain by losing that hour?

So often in life we measure things in losses. How much did we lose in the stock market? How much lower did the worth of our house go down this year? How much less is the US dollar worth? How many times have I been dumped? How much hair have I lost? Where did my figure go? But in life we have the choice to see things from the negative perspective or from the positive perspective.

I’m not going to lie to you and say that I always see things from the positive side, because I don’t. But what I know is that in any situation or circumstance in life there is always someone better off than you and someone worse off than you and if all you ever focus on is the negative, then far from living a life of greatness, all you will see is what you lose or don’t have.

The key is to see things for the way they really are: the way God sees them. Sure, we all lost an hour of sleep last Sunday, but for the next 5 months we gained an extra our of daylight each evening. Losing one hour of sleep to gain months of extra time in the day sounds like a good trade-off to me. Getting dumped by your boyfriend or girlfriend might hurt for a couple days, but perhaps they were not a nice person and in the end, you deserve better and have gained more respect for yourself. Maybe you’ve lost some of your hair (or all of it), but you’ve gained years of wisdom that you didn’t have back when you had a full head of hair.

One of the great tragedies in life is that so many people never live a life of greatness or find true happiness and love because all they see is the losses and don’t recognize the gains. By following Christ we might suffer the loss of friends, financial security, and comfort in our lives, but in knowing Christ we gain unconditional love, a life of greatness and eternal security! Any lose suffered in this life for Christ will be quickly overshadowed by the peace in our hearts that comes from the hope and realization of His love, protection, and providence—not just for this life, but for eternity! May we come to see that so often, we gain by losing.

Dear Jesus, save me from losing the eternal for the gains of this life which are passing. Help me to see as You see, with eyes of love, recognizing what is truly important and worth losing or gaining. Amen.

180

Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” Ezekiel 19: 31

Several years ago my sister-in-law (who shall remain nameless) was driving from New York City to somewhere in Pennsylvania. Now this can be a long, lonely ride and to top it off, she was all by herself. To pass the time she was listening to a book on CD. At one point she pulled off the road at a rest area to use the facilities. Afterward, she got in her car, turned the book back on and set off again on her journey. The book must have been very good, because about an hour later she happened to finally notice a sign showing the miles to New York City. Wide-eyed and screaming, she finally realized that she had gotten back on the interstate going in the wrong direction and hadn’t noticed for over an hour! With frustration she realized that she had just added two more hours to her trip and she made a U-turn at the next available exit.

Have you ever done something like that? While I haven’t gone an hour in the wrong direction at 60+ miles per hour, I have certainly had my share of times going the wrong way. I once turned down a one-way street in the wrong direction and I have certainly been led astray by my GPS a couple of times and had to back-track to get where I was going.

These instances can be metaphors that teach us about our spiritual life. What direction are we heading in: toward Jesus, or away from Him? Are we following Him on the Narrow Road, or cruising away from Him on the Wide Road? All of us sin, but what Jesus is asking is for a total change of direction in our lives and a complete exchange of our cold, hard hearts for new hearts that seek only to know Him, love Him and serve Him. Where is your heart right now?

Lent is a great time for us to take stock of our lives and look into our hearts and see what direction we are heading. Have we gotten on the wrong road or are we going in the wrong direction? Have we missed the “road” signs or warnings that Christ has put before us? Are we listening to God’s voice in our “GPS” for our direction, or are we listening to the voices of others that are misleading us from our intended final destination (heaven)? Are we going the wrong way on a spiritual one-way street? Does our life need a U-turn?

There is no half-way with God. It is all or nothing. Of course we will still sin, but the important question is this: where is our heart? Do we desire to love God above all else? Do we HATE sin? Do we do all we can to avoid the near occasion of sin? Are we living for God? Is He the reason we awake in the morning, work each day and go to sleep again at night?

He sees and knows the desires of our hearts, even when we fall. If our lives have been given completely to Him, if we have made a U-turn or a “180” from our lives of sin, from our old heart, and we have asked Him to make within us a new heart, He will. And each day we journey on the right road, in the right direction, the stronger this new heart will beat for love of Him. And as this heart beat grows stronger, we desire to see all people have the same heart beating within them. This Lent may we turn completely around from our desires for sin, or comfort or ease and allow Christ to create a new heart within us, a heart that desires only Him. A heart designed for greatness.

Dear Jesus, take any part of my heart that is old, cold or hard and replace it with new life. I desire to follow You Jesus. May the new heart You fashion within me beat with such love and passion for You that at every moment I profess Your glory and show Your mercy to everyone I meet. Amen.

The Satan Combo

“Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ, so that we might not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not unaware of his purpose.” 2 Corinthians 2: 10-11

We all sin.

And by sin I mean we know what God has commanded, we know that He commands it for our benefit because He loves us, and yet we still freely choose to disobey His command. Why? Because we are tempted and sometimes we give in to the temptations and because our fallen nature tends to be inclined towards sin. In other words, it is easier to sin than to NOT sin.

We know this is true in our hearts and in our own experience of life. Which is harder? To stay silent when someone has made fun of us, or to say a harsh comeback? To get angry when someone cuts in front of us or to give them a sincere smile? To yell and scream at someone or to control our anger? To cheat on the test and get an “A” or to get the “C” we deserve? To put ourselves first or to put others first?

We have to recognize our enemy. Satan is a fallen angel who masquerades as an angel of light, a wolf who comes disguised as a sheep and a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He does not stop to sleep or to eat, he has spiritual powers at his disposal and he knows how to tempt each of us in ways that are unique to our own weaknesses, personalities and temperaments. But in general, Satan has two big weapons that he uses in combination to tempt us in so many ways.

The first weapon is fear. Not a fear of the dark, his power, or of evil itself. But the fear of missing out, the fear that God couldn’t love us, the fear that God is trying to take away our freedom, the fear that others will have and we won’t, the fear that we won’t be happy, or loved, fear that we will be made a fool or embarrassed. So often, fear is the driving force behind many of the sins we commit. Like Adam and Eve, we are afraid that God does not have our best interests in mind, but that He is trying to hold out on us. And so we reach for the “apple”, we reach for the temptation dangling just out of reach, hoping that it will assuage our fears.

Satan’s second weapon is pride. Not a pride to make us feel good about ourselves, others, our country, our school or our place of business. But a pride that tempts us to think that we can know better than God, that we can become equal with God, or a pride in realizing that our free will gives us the power to limit God’s love and mercy in our own lives—a pride that tells us we do not need God. So many more sins are driven by this temptation of pride. We want to be independent, we want to be free, we want to make our choices and we don’t need ANYONE to teach us, guide us, show us or stop us! We don’t like being told “no” and so in our pride we think, say and do whatever we want, whenever we want. But in the end, like Adam and Eve, we do not become like God, we only become aware of our own nakedness.

If we can become aware that these two temptations of fear and pride are the weapons of choice for Satan, then we will have an easier time fighting and resisting them. The reality is that Satan used these same weapons against Jesus when tempting Him in the desert. Jesus knew Satan and his tactics. He defeated Satan in that desert and Christ defeated Satan for good on the Cross. And the grace He merited for us on the Cross is the weapon we use to fight back Satan’s weapons of fear and pride. With the grace of Jesus won for us by His unconditional love, all fear is driven out of our hearts and with the grace given us by the humility of Jesus, pride loses its power. This Lent, may we turn more and more to Jesus and allow His light to penetrate our hearts, casting out the sin and shadows of fear and pride.

Dear Jesus, please protect me from the fear and pride that Satan attacks me with each day. Help me to be secure in Your love for me. Help me to humble myself to Your will. Bring me more and more into the light of Your Presence each day. Amen.

“Leap” of Faith

“While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.’” Luke 11: 29

I would wager that most of us have at one time or another asked God for a sign. Or at least we hoped for one even if we didn’t outright ask Him. Does this mean we are evil? I think we need to understand the difference between asking for a sign out of humility and a deep desire to only do God’s will and asking for a sign out of pride and doubt where we are only willing to believe in God or follow God IF He gives us the sign first.

I have encounter many people that are sincerely not sure God exists, but they WANT to believe. These people humbly call out in the darkness of their hearts and minds, yearning for hope and something real to base their lives on. They are seeking the Lord but do not know Him yet. In time, some sooner and some later, all of them found Christ. Their hearts were innocent and God revealed Himself to them over time, subtly, so as not to scare them away. But once they came to have that gift of Faith, nothing could hold them back.

On the other hand, I have encountered some people who are angry, resentful or filled with a knowledge based in pride that there is no God. And they are not sincerely seeking Him—at least not consciously. They do not ask God to reveal Himself, they CHALLENGE God to reveal Himself, assuming He won’t, because He can’t, because He isn’t. The sign they look for is a burden of proof, beyond ANY doubt, that God is real. They do not ask for Faith. They ask for proof and rarely do they come by it.

That is the real difference, one person asks for Faith, while another asks for proof. A person of Faith does not need a “sign” because we are going to follow the Lord whether we receive a sign or consolation, or not. Faith does not need a sign. Sure, they’re nice when we do get them, but we don’t need them to believe.

The greatest sign that anyone could ever need has already been given to us: Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Who took on our lowly, human form and spread out His arms and died for us, so that we may live forever. We do not need any other signs to show us the love that God has for us. Jesus is not promising to lay down His life for us, He already has. And for 2,000 years, men, women, and children have believed in a God of such love. Once this unconditional love is accepted into our hearts and minds, no other sign is needed. Apostles preached this Sign, virgins sacrificed for this Sign, martyrs died for this Sign. And without seeing, we are blessed for believing in this Sign—the Person of Jesus. Let us take a “leap” of Faith today and ask for the gift of Faith—or a deeper Faith—so that we in turn, may become visible signs of Christ’s love to those who still seek Him and to all Whom He loves.

Dear Jesus, I ask You to grant me deeper Faith today. And please bless all those who do not believe in You with the absolute gift of Faith in Your love for them. Amen.

A Journey

“And he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal [the sick]. He said to them, ‘Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.’” Luke 9: 2-3

Have you ever been on a journey? Perhaps it was a road trip, or you flew to another country. Maybe you did a hike or visited a new place. I remember when my wife and I moved from New Mexico to Pennsylvania almost 17 years ago. We were pregnant with our first-born and we packed all of our junk into the largest U-haul truck we could get. Then we rented a full car trailer and put our little brand new Geo Metro on it and pulled it across the country behind us. My wife had meticulously planned out the trip day-by-day with KOA campground stops each night along the way (with “pull-through” camp sites so I wouldn’t have to back-up the truck and trailer). We were young, in love, had little money and hit the road with optimism. And the very first day only hours into our trip, as we attempted to cross over the mountains of eastern New Mexico, the truck overheated and we had to pull over. This was before everyone had cell phones and we were stuck in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. We kept trying to restart the truck with no success, hoping a car would pass by. But no one passed us by. We prayed a LOT (and I am sure I got angry and yelled some too). Eventually the truck cooled down enough to start and we made our way down the mountains. But by this time we had lost so much time there was no way we were going to get to our first planned KOA campground. So we had to switch plans, stop at a hotel and go extra hard and long the next day to make-up for lost time. Eventually, after many days and other stops, some good and some not so good, we made it to Pennsylvania. I’m sure many of you have similar stories. This reminds me of Lent.

Lent is a journey, not an event. But many times I think we forget this. We start off with all of our plans set: what were’ giving up (chocolate, facebook, coffee, etc.), what we’re going to do more of (pray, go to daily Mass, be in silence), what relationships we are going to heal, what sins we need to confess, etc., etc., etc. And then by the first Saturday after Ash Wednesday we have often failed so miserably at our goals that we admit defeat and just give up. Or maybe we scale back our plans to more reasonable levels of success. But Lent is a journey and on any journey there will be set-backs, problems, failures, delays, triumphs, and unexpected surprises.

Lent is a time to remind us, like any pilgrimage we go on, that LIFE is a journey, too. Some days we will do well and others we won’t do so well. We will encounter sickness, injuries, and unexpected surprises along the way. We will encounter people that cheer us up or send us spiraling. We will do great things for the Lord and we will sin like we’ve never sinned before. We will ride high and we will crawl on the ground—and some days we won’t even be able to get out of bed. But life is a journey and we ALWAYS have the next day! We always have the love of the Lord for us! We always have His unending mercy!

So this Lent be not afraid to set your spiritual goals high, but do not get discouraged when you don’t always succeed. And if you are failing miserably by this coming Saturday, start over again on Sunday. Jesus has already done this journey and shown us the Way. All we need to do is pick-up our own crosses and follow Him.

Dear Jesus, give me the grace and desire to follow You more closely this Lent. Allow me to see this journey as a pilgrimage and example of my life’s journey. And when I fall, help me to get back up as You did, with my eyes ever on the prize. Amen.

Feast or Famine?

“Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5: 8

 Lent is fast approaching. And to be honest with you, I have a love-hate relationship with this annual penitential season of the Church. I love it because I know I need it for I am still far too selfish, greedy, and prideful. But I hate it because it is hard—well it is hard if you follow what the Church teaches about it, do what She obligates us to do during it and maybe even go a little beyond the minimal expectations of it. So I have to begin mentally preparing myself for it a little ahead of time, which is probably why I am thinking about it today.

I need to get ready to fast. Not just from food and not just on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. No, I need to get ready to fast from noise and busyness. I try to slow down a bit in my life during Lent (if possible) and I try to spend more time in quiet listening to God speak to me.  I do this in a special way when driving in my car when I don’t turn on the radio or listen to my iPod. That’s right, no music, no sports talk, no games. Nothing. And sometimes for ministry I have to be in the car for hours driving from one retreat or another. But this is good for me.

I need to get ready to pray. Sure, I try to pray every day now, but in Lent I try to take it up a notch. I try to spend more time in prayer. I try to do the Stations of the Cross with my kids. I try to read my Bible more and with more reverence and focus, not just for my job or ministry, but to see what God is speaking to MY heart for ME. I try to engage more of my heart and mind at every Mass I attend.

I need to get ready to give alms. While my family tithes already, we try to eat more simply during Lent. No more eating out, less fancy meals at home. Less snacking, more sacrificing. And perhaps give more financially to others in need during this season; as a matter of justice, as a matter of faith.

What might God being calling you to do this Lenten season to prepare your hearts for the Paschal Triduum and for Easter? What will you fast from? How will you pray better? What alms shall you sacrifice?

At times the 40 days of Lent can seem like a famine in our lives, especially as we suffer through it while others do nothing different around us except perhaps enjoy a cheaper #9 value meal at McDonald’s (the filet-o-fish). But in this “famine” we find a spiritual banquet. And come Easter, we will have 50 days of “feasting”. A stark reminder of our lives: that when the days of our earthly lives come to an end, hopefully we will be worthy of the eternal feast of heaven. Not for 50 days, but forever!

Dear Jesus, please help to feast with You, to fast with You, to spend each and every moment with You in this life, so that I can spend eternity with You in the next life. Amen.