Where is Your Belief Leading You?

Do you believe in God?

Is this God all-good? Or all-bad? Or a little of each?

If He is all-bad, where did all the beauty in this world come from, and why would you believe in Him?

If He is sometimes good, and sometimes bad, how can He be God, who is always constant, and never capricious?

God must be all-good.

His plan, therefore, must also be good, because He is good.

Since we are here, we must be part of His good plan; and His plan for us must be good, as well.

Does God ever stop loving us, ever stop being aware of us? The answer must be no, since God is constant. He always loves us and is always aware of us.

Everything we receive, that which we like and don’t like is part of this all-good God’s plan for us. We just don’t know why these things happen! And, we don’t know where they will lead? This not knowing, however, if we let it, can erode our trust in God. We can wind up not trusting the very One, whose good plan for us permits these things to happen.

And so, we vainly replace our trust in God with trust in ourselves, our abilities, our thoughts, our desires. We, like Adam, seek to be our own little god. In abandoning our trust in God and substituting trust in our own judgments, we begin our own private hell. Always striving to trust something else, while not knowing who or what, like a fish on a boat deck, we flounder aimlessly trying to get back into the waters of belief.

Oh Lord, I believe. I want to believe. Help my unbelief.

How Far Can You See?

      Did you know that a sheep’s normal vision of sight is only seeing six feet? It will eat constantly and will have its head down; all the while it is eating, or looking for food. It moves from one patch of enticing grass to another. It’s like, the sheep is thinking, “oh here’s one, and oh, look, there’s another”. It is not concerned over what the rest of the sheep are doing, or where they are going. It will continue to look for something to eat, wherever it wishes. In short it is wrapped up in its own needs and becomes oblivious to the safety or dangers around it.
      Now multiply that by a hundred sheep, and you can see that the shepherd must be on his toes, all the time. He is constantly bringing the herd together, ensuring that they will all arrive home safely. No matter how good the shepherd is however, one or two will invariably find a grassy spot behind a knoll, behind a large boulder, or in a stand of trees. And once that happens, the job of the shepherd doubles in its difficulty. He must still continue to keep the herd together, but he must locate all the strays that have wandered from his sight.
      Why all of this about sheep? Yesterday’s Gospel was from Luke, Chapter 15, verses 1 to 10. In it is the parable of the Good Shepherd and looking for the one that strayed. The priest mentioned the fact about the sheep’s eyesight. It made an impression on me. I thought about the impact of keeping one’s head down, while coupled with seeing very poorly. We have to agree that this is definitely something that we cannot do in a bustling community with traffic whizzing by.
      And yet, sometimes we do just that. Whether we call it tunnel vision, or blind spot, one-track mind or being oblivious, the end result is the same…we don’t see, nor do we want to see any other point of view, but our own. We can talk and hear about Christ and His love for us all day. But for it to be meaningful to us, to have this change our ways, we have to put away our blinders. Our blinders are usually set up by ourselves. We have grown comfortable with them. They help us see only as much and as far as we want to see. With them we only see the problems that other people have, the value systems that we know are not right (and are thankful they are not ours). These blinders prevent us from seeing our own, self-made problems, our hampering attitudes, and worst of all, they prevent us from getting closer to Jesus.
      We are oblivious to the Shepherd hunting us down. We move on from one enticing “grassy” spot to another. We are constantly searching for something that will help us get through our day, something that will satisfy our immediate needs. St. Augustine chose to word it, “Our hearts are restless, until they rest in Thee.” In short, we seek out everything that we know of, that we think will satisfy the aching, yearning in our hearts. All the while the patient Shepherd seeks us out, waiting for that moment when we throw up our hands, and earnestly cry out, “God, help me!” Then, and only then, with our free will desiring assistance, the gentle Shepherd, caresses us and places us on His shoulders and carries us back to the fold.

Our Connection With Others

Branches bearing fruit on the Vine

      Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, are all very popular tools, nowadays. Their growth and popularity are good indicators of how important it is for people to be connected with others. The desire to be part of a group, to let people know who we are, and to be connected with other people is almost an innate desire in each of us. Mankind is constantly seeking fulfillment. And in the search for fulfillment, many times it finds not fulfillment, but lesser things, like power, wealth, fame, popularity, and pleasure. Mistakenly, mankind will embrace these, thinking it has found its ultimate goal. About this, Saint Augustine simply says, “…for Thou hast made us for Thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in Thee.” -1
      In the Gospel of John, we hear the words, “…Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” -2 Very often in these posts, the doing of positive things, is not only recommended, but is the purpose of the post. However, our acts of kindness and love for those we are connected to, grow out of our connection with Christ. So we must strive to be, first and foremost, at one with Him. For it is in our conviction of His love for us, of His forgiveness of all the wrong we have done; because of those assurances, we are filled with the desire to share this joy, this fervor with others. Then our connections with others can be something special. Our interaction with others won’t be just talking about circumstances, or events, or ourselves. It can be the mutual discussion, by both parties, of each one’s embrace of life, the true purpose of life, the expression of love and healing with our fellow man. Yes, we will still laugh and cry, feel good and bad. We will still wonder why certain things are permitted to happen. But in all of this we will know that Christ is standing there with us, with our friends. He may even be speaking through our words of encouragement and cheerfulness to those we mingle with and helping them bear fruit. Or, He may be using them to console us and helping us grow.
      None of this however, can happen, if we pursue only the lesser goals that life presents. Though wealth, and power and all the rest may hold a certain allure for each of us, we cannot, must not forfeit our ultimate goal for them. All the restlessness that we feel, all that we strive for can only be satisfied until we feel the calm of resting close to Him. And only in that closeness will we know that our love for others can and will bear fruit.

-1 Confessions, Chapter 1, line 1
-2 John 15: 4

OUR QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

Early on in his “Confessions”, St. Augustine writes “For Thou hast formed us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless, till they rest in Thee.”