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Please read my "fleeting" thoughts and feel free to give me feedback. Although I believe much of these were "inspired" I am but a man and susceptable to my own leanings. I would like to know where my thoughts may conflict with the scriptures so I may continue to learn.
Fleeting moments
God talks to all of us in fleeting moments if we take time to listen. Too often we drown out the opportunities with TV, parties and conversations. But we can also drown it out with prayers of supplication, religious music "frantic" Bible reading and other such things - we need to take time to listen. Be quiet and observe. Then we need to accept (James 1:5-6 and share with others . The Prayers, Bible reading etc are good but we must not bury ourselves to the point we don't listen.
Marriage
When you meet someone you may "Fall" in love (infatuation). It consists of what you know about that person (i.e. what they let you know about them) in other words you don't see the whole picture. As you get to know them better (often not till after marriage) then you see their bad side as well as their good side which they wanted you to see. Often then you feel cheated because you don't see the same person you thought you had - you see someone who has all these bad characteristics not just the good ones. (of course you don't realize usually that your spouse may be thinking the same thing). Also we may see other people outside of our resationship who we compare our spouse to. We don't realize we are comparing someone we know a lot about (we know their bad points) to someone we know little about ( we only see their good points because that's all they let us see) We may not realize this person we're using as a model may have also been crabby when they got up or that they leave things lying around also etc.
Love is not necessarily something you "fall" into and then stay there the rest of your life. Love is something you make happen and something you must work at. Consider in olden times and even in present times in some cultures where your spouse was selected for you by your parents. Obviously people did not normally "fall" in love with their spouse - but I presume marriages did stay together. I wonder if in ways it may have been because they knew from the start that for it to work they had to work at it. Whereas now days we get the idea - be it from novels, movies, TV or whatever that we can "fall" in love and that in itself will take us through the good times as well as the bad times and we don't have to put any effort into it. We have to - to make a relationship work - work at it regardless if we are having trouble paying bills, or if we are having a hard time at work, we have to work at it even if we don't think our spouse is working at it.
Unimportant Jobs?
People can be trained to be priests or authors, or engineers etc but only God can ordain people to do his will. Saul and David were selected (ordained) to be kings they both failed at times and God forgave but still punished. Abraham was ordained to be the the father of the Jewish nation. Although God had told him he would be the father of a nation in his lifetime he was not great. He was the father of a son. His mission was Fatherhood. He followed God most of the time (ex: when he took Isaac for sacrifice) He also disobeyed God (ex: when he slept with his servant). David also, before he became "King David" he was a shepherd and a singer/song writer. His work as a shepherd gave him much of the inspiration for his Psalms which have inspired countless people through the ages. I doubt that David had any inclination of how God was going to use his work to inspire so many of God's people.
As people we don't always see God's greatness done in our day but we are all just as important to His plan just the same. God doesn't issue unimportant jobs. See Matt 2:11
Caring for others
Often I have heard it said and I've said it myself - I don't feel welcome at my church - I don't feel nourished at my church - I don't feel satisfied at my church. Many people move to another church because they blame their dissatisfaction on the pastor or the church staff or the volunteers running different ministries. I've talked to people who have cycled thru a number of different churches cause they haven't been satisfied at any of them. The truth is the pastor and staff and ministry leaders aren't responsible for our satisfaction. We are. We have to get involved. We have gotten to the point we figure with the pastors religious education he should be able to control the whole environment of the church. It is we that need to put in the effort to make it a satisfying place, The Pastor can't listen to all our needs our hardships and heartaches but we can take the time to listen and care for each other. If everyone here was to take just a little bit of time throughout the days or weeks to really care about the others around them in our church - we would reach out to many people and our church would be very satisfying - not only for those we take the time for but for ourselves as well. If we also reached out to those in our communities, then the people in our communities would be coming to find out what makes us tick.'
Francis of Assisi said: "Go forth and preach the Gospel. If you must, use words."
Soccer/Christians
If we are Christians - we accept the direction the Bible leads us as the truth. If we don't accept the Bibles teachings it is as if we are one who wants to play Soccer but when we get on the field we keep ignoring the rules and want to pick up the ball in our hands and run down the field with it. We don't really want to play soccer - we want to do our own thing and although it appears to be more like football we want to say we are playing soccer. If we don't accept the Bible - maybe we are just wanting to say we are Christians even though our lives have no similarity to Jesus life.
Fire, Energy and the Holy Spirit
We are like logs in the fire. The Holy Spirit ignites each and every one of us. We gather together and our fire burns bright. We get spread apart and our fire dwindles and even goes out. Then we need to be put back with the rest of the wood to rekindle or maybe we need the Spirits spark again. We can be as a torch and go out from the wood to be used to ignite other fires but we must often go back to be relit especially if new fires aren't started right away.
Rethinking the Sacraments
Too often I think we want our kids and others we may influence to be models of ourselves and to believe and react as we believe and react. As in the confirmation of the past when we may have been required to think and answer questions the way the Bishop wanted us to think.
We have to realize the Holy Spirit doesn't always think the way we think. Although there is nothing wrong with logical thinking and oft times we may need to be logical we have to be open to the fact that the Holy Spirit is often illogical to our way of thinking.
He chose Abraham to be father of a nation. Here was a man and wife who were aged and had not had children all these years. Wouldn't it have made more sense to use a man and woman who had had kids when they were young?
Abraham being logical had tried to help the situation by sleeping with his servant to have children and had Ishmael. But this was not the way God wanted to do it - he wanted to do it the hard way.
Gideon is another example of God not being Logical. God Chose someone to lead the Israelites out of a period where they were being defeated and oppressed. So rather than picking a strong warrior he picked Gideon who was from a clan which was the weakest in Manasseh and who was the weakest in his family. So gideon proceeded with 30,000 men to fight the Midianites. God trimmed that to 300 men and defeated a force of over 100,000.
The Choice of David against Goliath and then as King was also an illogical choice. After all David had brothers who were warriors. David himself was a shepherd boy.
So we have to keep in mind that helping others around us requires us to pastor, guide, counsel and support and allow them to be energized by this divine power. We aren't there to channel them into our way of thinking but to help them realize their own relationship with the Holy Spirit so they can follow the Spirits direction in their life. Maybe what is important to us is feeding the hungry but what the Spirit has for them is working in the business community and being an example of Christ in the corporate world - it is not for us to redirect them. A few years ago I went to a inservice for Confirmation Catechists. A debate arose over the best way to convince the kids of the way that the church teaches about the Trinity. It occurred to me that possibly this wasn't an issue that warranted heated debate as I believe the Spirit can and does show himself to each of us in his own way and we may each perceive him in our own way. Though our perceptions may be different then each other - whatever he taught us is real. Just as if a Gallant General were to be described by his soldiers, by his parents, by his classmates from his school days, all would probably describe him differently but all would be correct.
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