HOW CAN I TRUST GOD?

 HOW CAN I TRUST GOD?

It is one of my themes that trust in God is the road to inner peace.  But there are several things, which impede a person from turning over their lives to God. Please do not report me to the authorities, but the God often depicted in the Hebrew Testament is not trustworthy.  For example, in Numbers 21: 4-6, we read,  “The Jewish refugees from Egypt got fed up with the conditions and complained to Moses. So God sent serpents among them, which bit the people and many died.” This image of God is totally at odds with who God truly is. Who would trust such a God?

To know God as God truly is, we need to hear about him from Jesus.  The way to trusting in God is through Jesus.  Get to know Jesus.  Study Jesus. Don’t depend solely on what you hear on Sunday, but open the New Testament and read.  Part of the reason that Christianity even exists is the message Jesus gave us about the everlasting love of God.  

Don’t be afraid to question or doubt. Pray to the Spirit to join you in your quest. 

In my own case, it was the day I read that passage in Numbers.  I thought who, but an evil person would do such a thing?  If I, a mere mortal, would not even think of doing such a thing, how could I love a God who would?  So I began to study, to listen to Jesus, to find the answers. 

We are going through serious weather issues at the moment.  And, of course, those who prefer a God who is as judgmental and bloodthirsty as they are, have decided that this is God punishing sinners.  Jesus has told us that God is Love.  God cannot visit death on people randomly in hopes of getting the sinners, and still be Love.

In all fairness, I must say that our God of love is evident in the Hebrew Scriptures, but is often obscured by the stories, fables and violence in those pages.  

Case in point: Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel. I will place my law within them, and write it on their hearts. They will no longer teach each other “Know the Lord!” Everyone from the least to the greatest shall know me, for I shall forgive them and remember their sins no more.”

You can see how easy it will be to grow in love of God.  He has already done most the work for you.  The truth lies within you, you just have to uncover it. 

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

THE CLOSED DOOR

THE CLOSED DOOR

There are few things that seem as final as a closed door. If you are on the inside, it can signal security, but if you are on the outside, it can represent rejection.  When someone dies, we stand before a door that has been effectively slammed in our faces.  There is only one way to open that door, but that is not up to us. 

Besides doors, we can also close our hearts. Arguments turn into unresolvable feuds when hearts close.  There was a woman, recently, who left a suicide note, which said she was leaving earth because her husband of twenty years had closed his heart to her.  

It’s startling how easy it is to close our hearts over the most petty things. We refuse to listen, to acknowledge apologies or accept anything that could change our minds.  This, then, becomes who we are for the foreseeable future.  We don’t see it as imprisoning ourselves?  We don’t see ourselves as hypocrites, as we treat everyone else with kindness believing we are following Jesus’ command to love one another?  

When we are reminded that Jesus forgave, we are tempted to think, “Well, it was easy for him.” That is so wrong. Case in Point:  Jesus goes to the temple to pray on the Sabbath.  It soon becomes obvious that his enemies have set a trap.  A man is in the crowd with a withered hand.  The enemies wait and watch knowing Jesus will help him and that will condemn Jesus.  But Jesus knowing what they’re thinking, asks them whether it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath and to save life rather than destroy it? Because they stood silent, he called the man over and healed him. The Gospel writer says, “He looked at them with anger and grieved at the hardness of their hearts.”  (Mark 3:1-6)

The Pharisees left then and joined the forces of Herod to think up ways to do away with him.  Yet after all that, he prayed for them from the cross!  Still think it was easy for Jesus?  Whenever the subject comes up ,and someone says it was easier for Jesus because he was God, I am reminded of the words of Phillip Yancy, 

“Jesus did not come to show us how to be God. He came to show us how to be human.”

Opening our hearts means setting ourselves free, not necessarily patching up the relationships. That will come or not, but at least we will have let the burden go.  It’s a start.

Carol Lemelin OPA

ST. STEPHEN First Martyr for Christ

SAINT STEPHEN

First Martyr for Jesus

Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:
"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you always oppose the Holy Spirit;you are just like your ancestors.
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?
They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,
whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
You received the law as transmitted by angels,but you did not observe it." (ACTS: 7:51)

You can almost see the fire in Stephen’s eyes as he calls out the people.  Their fury over his words was born of guilt, and the fear that he could be right.  So the only solution was to kill him, which they did.  

Much is made of Saint Paul’s presence at this event. It has always seemed to me to be added as an afterthought.  Since Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles, did Luke ask Paul about including him in the Acts? It could be that Paul was changed by the similarity between Stephen and himself.  Both of them in imbued with the ability to speak passionately. Did he feel a sense of unease for having watched the stoning?  When Jesus appeared to him and called him by name and asked why he was persecuting his followers, did Paul recall the event? Was that why he surrendered so easily to his blindness and obeyed the direction to go into the city and wait?    Is it possible that Paul’s miraculous change of heart had its beginning that day as the cloaks fell at his feet and Stephen called out the name of Jesus?  

The overwhelming power of the love of God has sustained many people since Stephen.  It was evident in St. Paul and St. Peter and has been evident in numerous followers of Christ.  The presence of Jesus in our hearts, once acknowledged, takes over our lives and reveals strengths we never knew we had. In all honesty, most of us could not or would not preach with the fire of Stephen or Paul.  That does not mean that we can’t share our love of Christ and our conviction that life lived in Him brings peace. Christ was not speaking just to the apostles when he commanded that the world should know of him.  We are expected to hear and obey as well.

On Sunday I had purely random conversation with a couple I met at the Mall. It was fun to share with them. Then as we parted ways, we exchanged first names and the man said, “You pray for me and I’ll pray for you and we’ll see what wonderful things will happen.”   

And there it is, a simple and heartfelt revelation of faith. Unfortunately we are encouraged to get people to come to church, but what we really should be doing is helping them get to know Christ.  We have to convey our belief that we are all bound to Christ and through Him to God.  It’s a beautiful thought and easy to express. So let His love flow through you as you strive to do His will. 

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

OPTIMIST OR PESSIMIST? #2

 OPTIMIST OR PESSIMIST?

The DEA moved wolves from Minnesota to Isle Royal in hope of balancing the animal population on the island. Last winter during the Polar Vortex, a she-wolf walked the 15 miles home to Minnesota over an ice bridge on Lake Superior.

The she-wolf is a perfect image of an optimist.  She was lonely for home and when she saw a chance to escape she took it.  

Who is happier a pessimist or an optimist?  A pessimist is someone who is so determined not to be disappointed by fate that they choose to expect the worse. It works for them, because if things go well, they consider that a bonus and if not, they take comfort in being right.  They think optimists are fools and have their heads in the clouds. An optimist is someone who expects the best. They think pessimists are sourpusses and killjoys. The major difference is that the pessimist has no hope while the optimist is full of hope.  The wolf had no assurance that she would make it home, but she had hope.

We can wake up, grow up, ad get real.  Jesus led the way. He was a realist. A realist is person who recognizes that neither pessimism nor optimism are acceptable positions.  Instead realism understands that things just go the way they do and we need to be prepared for either.   Jesus set the example that night in the garden.  He asked God to spare him, but he acknowledged the very real possibility that God would not, and so he said, “Not my will, but yours.”

Jesus came to bring hope to the world. He is hope.  While the emphasis on that hope has been life everlasting, the more valuable aspect is the trust in God that comes with hope. God never abandons.  God loves us unconditionally.  Knowing that, is how Jesus fulfilled his mission.  We have the example; it’s up to us to follow it. 

Pope John XXIII said, “God wants you to be happy in this life.”  That was a revolutionary statement.  Why would God want that?  Because when we are happy we are kinder, more generous, more out-going, more caring and when it becomes evident to others that we are happy because of Jesus, we have made the connection that is true purpose of our lives.   

Optimism is to believe that good actions create more good actions.

Pessimism is to believe that nothing we do makes any difference. That’s a dark view, with no hope. It is true that the world and society in general can give us reason to be pessimistic, but we can’t let it take over our lives.  Like the wolf, we must hopefully press on. 

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

A REFLECTION

A REFLECTION 

“How in the world did I get here?”  I imagine everyone in their eighth decade has the same thought when their next birthday looms as mine does shortly.  As I look back on a very long life, all the emotions felt assail me, some of which I would rather not revisit.  But this is about my spiritual life.  

Fr. Richard Rohr wrote an essay in which he described the development of a spiritual life as Order, Disorder and Reorder.  My response to that was “Boy Howdy!”

For me Order was a time when questions were not allowed.

Disorder was a time when there was nothing but questions.

Reorder is the time where no questions are necessary. 

Thus these late years, from a spiritual standpoint, are the easy ones.  I am at peace with God.  I have put my absolute trust in him with the result that I worry a lot less and understand that whatever comes, He will sustain me. I realized through my searching that the very best qualities in humans are the reflection of the presence of the Spirit within us.  I concluded that the harshly judgmental God of my childhood was the creation of humans, men mostly.  They felt powerless and craved control, so they constructed a God who could do what they could not.  

However, Jesus said, “Who has seen me has seen the Father.”  Thereby destroying that image.  God is loving, forgiving, and compassionate and infinitely fair as Jesus proved. 

I learned that what happens, happens and the accidents of living are not God pulling strings.  If I could, I would re-train those who consistently declare that they know the Will of God and those whose faith life is based on superstition and a total misunderstanding of God. 

Living a long life means, as a rule, that one has seen just about everything.  That brings with it understanding, patience and tolerance. I’m embarrassed to say how long it has taken me to reach that state.   

As human lives go, mine has been a Princess Cruise and I pray I have been worth it.

I don’t pretend to have reached perfection, for as Jesus reminds us, “Only the Heavenly Father is perfect.”  I do say, though, that I look forward to meeting God. 

I hope he blocks out a chunk of time for me, because there is a lot I want to say to him, beginning with Thank You.

Blessings on you all, 

Don’t despair. Spring has to come eventually, unless, of course, Summer overtakes it.

Carol Lemelin OPA

HANGING ON

HANGING ON

Imagine how St. Peter felt standing face to face with a resurrected Jesus.  The only word that might properly describe his emotional state would be kaleidoscope.  Fear, joy, anxiety, humiliation, hope and love spinning around madly throughout his mind and body. Most of us would collapse under the strain. Perhaps he did. Jesus’ look of love would have pierced his heart. That is how everyone feels when they have been forgiven. 

When we speak of forgiveness, for the most part, we speak of how and why we should forgive.  We usually only think of our feelings and rarely the feelings of the one forgiven.  Forgiveness has two sides. Both parties are relieved of a burden and each feels a sense of freedom.  When you try to sort out the emotional firestorm of both, you wind up falling back on the cliché, “It’s complicated.”

How do we do it?  How do we let go of things that have hurt us and ruined our sleep?

How do we stop feeling good when the offending party’s luck turns bad or when we perceive we have scored a point against them?  We start by praying. Asking God to teach us mercy or asking God to strengthen our resolve to ask for it. 

I liken what it takes to ask for forgiveness or to forgive to the same strength that is required to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.   We want to hang on for dear life to the strap, which is the grudge or the guilt. We are not sure who we will be after we let go. That, of course, is the point.  If we have let either define us, we are certainly not who we should be or should want to be.  We have to let go of the strap.  We may scream all the way down but God stands ready to catch us.  

I read somewhere that if you ask forgiveness and it is denied, it’s not your problem anymore. But that is not true.  It will always be there unresolved.  On the other hand, refusing to forgive means you are keeping the grudge in your heart. In either case, a heart filled with bitterness or guilt leaves little room for God. 

My mother told me long ago that whenever the issue surfaces, pray for the other person.  The first time I tried it, I must admit I did it grudgingly, but to my surprise it worked. Whatever we need to do the right thing, God is there to bestow it.  As it is with everything else we have to trust in Him.  His mercy endures forever.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin