I am an idealist. Most of my life has been spent imagining a perfect world, trying to make a perfect world, and dealing with realizations that this isn’t a perfect world. I love to daydream and read about how things ought to be. Whenever I have to face the true world (or what seems to be), it almost instantly becomes too much for me to bear. But there is hope, so much hope that you must have it.
Do you know how amazing our God is? Do you know what we have in the Catholic Church? We have a way to the ideal. Each of the sacraments offers a way out of the confused world of sin and into a clear, bright world. A sacrament is a teleporter to the ideal, and it transforms us to the ideal too. And the ideal is how it was always meant to be. Today after confession, I felt as if I was the ideal. I had no sin. And although I would soon walk out into a world that still has countless problems, I was that much closer to the ideal, to God.
God is a genius beyond all understanding. We screw up, He says, “Try again, only first, I’ll eradicate all traces of your mistakes. You are now completely pure in my eyes.” If we are pure in God’s eyes, then we ARE pure. We are weak, He says, “Come and eat, and you will live forever”. We enter into God and God into us. The Eucharist is the single greatest gift to man. Could we ever know all that It does for us?
At birth, sin already has us in it’s grips. God says, “Be reborn, and not only will I take away your sin, but fill you with My Spirit”. When we are close to death, God says “I will heal your soul and give you courage”.
If there is anything in existence better than God and what He has given to us, I want to know. I haven’t found something close to the ideal, I have found THE ideal. And God offers it to us endlessly.
I won’t apologize for being an idealist, because it sure seems to me that God is one. He even destroyed death for us.
By the way, how amazing is this song?
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tidbit from Conference
I went to a talk during the conference where the speaker mentioned a canoeing trip he took with his wife. The only thing he remembered from the quick safety and canoe lesson was that if you fall out of the boat, don’t attempt to stand up. If you try to stand up in a river, the force of the water will knock you down. The worse case would be that your foot would get caught between rocks and you could drown. I forgot where the speaker went with his story, but “don’t stand up” can apply to a lot of different things. I wrote this in adoration at the conference.:
It’s amazing how you touch people Lord. In simply wanting you, we get you. Can you ever give us more love now than before, when all your love was already upon us? Does this mean you were holding back, or that you just created more love? I think neither. I believe that this “new and greater” love you give me was already there, but now I see it, I feel it, I know it. You put it there, from all along. My eyes and heart are open and you rush in. Lord, how you fill every space entirely! There is no greater love than your love because it never ceases. It never fails.
I am no match against the roaring river of you and all that you have for me. I will go with the river, and hope to never try and stand up. I want to experience the rapids and taste the chill of the water. I want to see the mountains and the trees that are beyond the river’s bend. It’s someplace that I can’t see, but I know that it will be beyond anything that I can imagine.
And you made it all. You put me on that river and you told the waters to flow. You gave it all to me and I just have to look around and not stand up. God, how marvelous you are! How infinite your love is! How I only seek to float down the river with you! How I see now that I always have been. My Lord and my God, thank you!
It’s amazing how you touch people Lord. In simply wanting you, we get you. Can you ever give us more love now than before, when all your love was already upon us? Does this mean you were holding back, or that you just created more love? I think neither. I believe that this “new and greater” love you give me was already there, but now I see it, I feel it, I know it. You put it there, from all along. My eyes and heart are open and you rush in. Lord, how you fill every space entirely! There is no greater love than your love because it never ceases. It never fails.
I am no match against the roaring river of you and all that you have for me. I will go with the river, and hope to never try and stand up. I want to experience the rapids and taste the chill of the water. I want to see the mountains and the trees that are beyond the river’s bend. It’s someplace that I can’t see, but I know that it will be beyond anything that I can imagine.
And you made it all. You put me on that river and you told the waters to flow. You gave it all to me and I just have to look around and not stand up. God, how marvelous you are! How infinite your love is! How I only seek to float down the river with you! How I see now that I always have been. My Lord and my God, thank you!
Friday, July 31, 2009
If God is a DJ then let the music play
I will never get tired of driving around. It is such a perfect time to truly relax, which means cleaning up my mind of its tangled-up ideas and memories, and putting them back on the shelves. It is the best time for thinking. So I was extremely ready to get back to Auburn, and enjoy the drive. After 6 weeks of literally never being alone, I really needed some peaceful quietness. So much has happened this summer and I need to digest it.
So anyway, I know what this post should be about, but I honestly don’t want to talk about it. There is too many things to explain for so little importance. I’ll recap the very few useful things I got out of field training, and try not to complain much, but not now. I also won’t talk about my recent trip just yet either (I had a surprise vacation to Italy right after I finished field training! It’s crazy how things happen!!) No, instead I’ll talk about what I want to talk about (which I think is kind of the point of a blog).
Whenever I start a long drive, I seem to have a ritual. The first 5 or 10 minutes (depending on what I’m doing or where I’m going) is spent thinking of anything I forgot to bring or do before it’s too late to turn around. That flawlessly fades into being relieved and happy that I’m on my way to wherever it is I’m going. I thank God for being able to go to such place and ask Him for a safe trip. Then that always turns into thinking about Him. It also helps that I’m usually leaving Auburn, which is one of the most beautiful places on earth and it’s sunny and gorgeous outside. I can’t help but become awestruck at His creation and the fact I’m a part of it.
Today, during this “phase” of my mind, I had, what I consider, a really great thought. What I consider really great, by the way, is anything that makes sense to me, or that I like. So “really great” probably isn’t “that great”. Anyway, isn’t God like a conductor? God is the conductor of the world, of all creation and every person. God, being outside time and space, knows the entire song. In fact, He also wrote the music. God stands in the front and gave the signal to start the piece, and so it started. But even before any note plays, God knew every instrument and every person needed to play it, and so has prepared to have His masterpiece perfect.
So, God stands in the front directing everything. Each person has an instrument that is just for him (and fits him perfectly, because God knows each of us perfectly), and will help us learn to play and tune it. These are the struggles and hard times. God is tuning us, and is helping us so that we may play flawlessly when it is our time in the music. We must concentrate on playing our instrument perfectly, so we are ready. And again, God is the one leading us through this.
Then we go to our chair, which is in the perfect place and next to the people we need to be next to, or (stay with me) the people we meet in life. We sit down and look to God for our time to play. If all goes right, you take His cue and, because of all the hard work put in, enter and join the song and play your part. If all doesn’t quite go perfectly it might seem like this: you may not appreciate the instrument given to you, you may even try to get a new one, or “upgrade” the one you have. You may not take to “practicing” well, or don’t think you need God’s help with tuning. You may try to change seats, or worse yet, not look to God for the cue. Even if you do start playing, looking away from God, or trying your own thing will only diverge from the perfect piece of music God has written.
But this actually won’t ruin anything, because God knows the notes you will play and has incorporated them into the music already. In fact, the orchestra that God is conducting includes every creature, every event in history, and in the future. It’s all in the song, being revealed one measure at a time. God has written it so every instrument, and the musician, has a crucial part in the piece. And each note is meaningful and connects with other instruments and melodies. Alone, one instrument can’t play the piece, but together they play looking to God for the next direction. From the beginning of time to the end, the piece will go on, even with the seemingly “mistakes” that the players make when they lose faith. In reality, those mistakes only make it more beautiful.
And then after all the time of struggles with learning to play that instrument, all the time checking the sound, when you begin to play, you begin to listen. You hear the beautiful, complex yet simple music, you see God directing the masses while giving full attention to each musician that’s struggling, you begin to see the entire picture. And that only makes you play more fervently, watching God even more intently, waiting eagerly on his every cue, even if its subtle, so you don’t miss it. You want to be perfect, so your part of the piece, contributing to the whole, is perfect. You want to please God and give Him glory for the song He wrote. And strangely enough, you were only able to do that because of Him.
So that’s my thought. I love car rides.
So anyway, I know what this post should be about, but I honestly don’t want to talk about it. There is too many things to explain for so little importance. I’ll recap the very few useful things I got out of field training, and try not to complain much, but not now. I also won’t talk about my recent trip just yet either (I had a surprise vacation to Italy right after I finished field training! It’s crazy how things happen!!) No, instead I’ll talk about what I want to talk about (which I think is kind of the point of a blog).
Whenever I start a long drive, I seem to have a ritual. The first 5 or 10 minutes (depending on what I’m doing or where I’m going) is spent thinking of anything I forgot to bring or do before it’s too late to turn around. That flawlessly fades into being relieved and happy that I’m on my way to wherever it is I’m going. I thank God for being able to go to such place and ask Him for a safe trip. Then that always turns into thinking about Him. It also helps that I’m usually leaving Auburn, which is one of the most beautiful places on earth and it’s sunny and gorgeous outside. I can’t help but become awestruck at His creation and the fact I’m a part of it.
Today, during this “phase” of my mind, I had, what I consider, a really great thought. What I consider really great, by the way, is anything that makes sense to me, or that I like. So “really great” probably isn’t “that great”. Anyway, isn’t God like a conductor? God is the conductor of the world, of all creation and every person. God, being outside time and space, knows the entire song. In fact, He also wrote the music. God stands in the front and gave the signal to start the piece, and so it started. But even before any note plays, God knew every instrument and every person needed to play it, and so has prepared to have His masterpiece perfect.
So, God stands in the front directing everything. Each person has an instrument that is just for him (and fits him perfectly, because God knows each of us perfectly), and will help us learn to play and tune it. These are the struggles and hard times. God is tuning us, and is helping us so that we may play flawlessly when it is our time in the music. We must concentrate on playing our instrument perfectly, so we are ready. And again, God is the one leading us through this.
Then we go to our chair, which is in the perfect place and next to the people we need to be next to, or (stay with me) the people we meet in life. We sit down and look to God for our time to play. If all goes right, you take His cue and, because of all the hard work put in, enter and join the song and play your part. If all doesn’t quite go perfectly it might seem like this: you may not appreciate the instrument given to you, you may even try to get a new one, or “upgrade” the one you have. You may not take to “practicing” well, or don’t think you need God’s help with tuning. You may try to change seats, or worse yet, not look to God for the cue. Even if you do start playing, looking away from God, or trying your own thing will only diverge from the perfect piece of music God has written.
But this actually won’t ruin anything, because God knows the notes you will play and has incorporated them into the music already. In fact, the orchestra that God is conducting includes every creature, every event in history, and in the future. It’s all in the song, being revealed one measure at a time. God has written it so every instrument, and the musician, has a crucial part in the piece. And each note is meaningful and connects with other instruments and melodies. Alone, one instrument can’t play the piece, but together they play looking to God for the next direction. From the beginning of time to the end, the piece will go on, even with the seemingly “mistakes” that the players make when they lose faith. In reality, those mistakes only make it more beautiful.
And then after all the time of struggles with learning to play that instrument, all the time checking the sound, when you begin to play, you begin to listen. You hear the beautiful, complex yet simple music, you see God directing the masses while giving full attention to each musician that’s struggling, you begin to see the entire picture. And that only makes you play more fervently, watching God even more intently, waiting eagerly on his every cue, even if its subtle, so you don’t miss it. You want to be perfect, so your part of the piece, contributing to the whole, is perfect. You want to please God and give Him glory for the song He wrote. And strangely enough, you were only able to do that because of Him.
So that’s my thought. I love car rides.
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