How Foolish

On the road to Emmaus, there are many pitfalls but they too are part of our journey. In Matthew, we read a passage in which Jesus says "How foolish you are, how slow to believe everything the prophets said." How true that is ... 

We are slow, because we are human. We are not gifted with perfection or with divine faith, unshakable faith. We struggle with sin and despair, with belief and disbelief, with doubts too many to count. We are human and we are indeed foolish when it comes to bringing Jesus into our hearts. We do believe but we are often too slow to believe in full measure. We are those men that Jesus was speaking to. We are all of us.

But that is the path too, that hard walk too is the way of the Lord. To make us struggle with Him, to make us think more deeply, to help us understand ... that is part of what God wants from us. Today through the stories I have heard at our Emmaus retreat so far, I see that more clearly. This is a personal journey and it is different for each of us. Just as our fingerprints are unique to each of us, so too is the development of our spiritual path. Rocky or smooth, it is our own and unique to each of us. There is no other path that compares.

People often say "You make the bed that you lie in." And our faith journey is indeed that bed we make. We may toss and turn, we may lie sweetly, we may dream ... all may be true in our lives, at one time or another. in one way or another. So today I pray that my path will be forever clear, though forever unfinished. I look to dispel the foolish lack I have in my heart ... I seek to find Jesus faster every day, to learn more about the prophets and believe more surely.

I want to know the road to Emmaus, really know it so I can express it to my family, to my friends, to my circle of influence, that corner of my world that will listen. I am one of those men that Jesus is speaking to, and I am listening more intently than ever.

Smile

A cool post I saw on Facebook, from Andy Reyes in Cuba … “The revolution of love begins with a smile, your smile. It is a light in the window of your soul, indicating that your heart is at home and at peace. Do not let anyone come to you without leaving better and happier. Remember, you are the living expression of God's goodness, with kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile. Freely radiate your smile, because it has many jobs to do.”

I have written in the past about one of my Mom’s gifts, her smile. I am so grateful that she modeled that smile for us as kids. Her soul was always so pure, so innocent, so connected to the Lord … and her smile was definitely a light always shining in her window. She was always at peace even in the toughest of circumstances; she truly believed that Jesus was at her side.

More importantly, she made others happy and better. She would come home from her job as a cafeteria worker at a University of Minnesota dorm, and talk abut the students she knew. She would talk to them about their lives and assure them that all would be well. Every day she was the living expression of God … I believe that.

I like the last lines … it’s not always easy for me, because I have had people tell me I come across very serious and intense, often much more serious than I feel. But showing kindness in your face, in your eyes and in your smile, and in your laugh … that is a gift she shared, and one that I try to remember and reflect. Compared to her I am an amateur but there is a special spark I feel I got from her … that smile that has many jobs to do. 

The Privilege

Seen on dads4life.org … “Prayer is the practice of the presence of God. It is the place where pride is abandoned, hope is lifted and supplication is made. Prayer is the place of admitting our need, of adopting humility and claiming dependence on God. Prayer is the needful practice of the Christian, the exercise of faith and hope. Prayer is the privilege of touching the heart of the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Our small church community has taught me much about prayer, and together we live this quote on many Mondays of the year. I think about God being present with us, in what we read and what we share, in the way we sing together and meditate on the Word … I feel God in those moments.

We share without much reservation … we definitely lift each other up and admit our need not just for prayer but for God’s calming presence. Together we are a humble group, some more knowledgeable in theology than others, but we all learn at every meeting. We love the practice of prayer. And I do think we touch the heart of our Catholic religion in so many different ways, through Jesus.

It is a privilege to be in our group, a new family that I love … I wish for all people that they can find that kind of faith family, however it happens. It is a blessing like no other, because it really is the presence of God.  

The Value of Friends

From the website Stay Great … “The finger of God touches your life when you make a friend.” … Mary Dawson Hughes

It is often true that good friends are forever. We know them well and they know us, like no one else but our family. And even then, we may share things with our friends that we’ll never give our families. God graces us with special people in our lives and great friends above all.

To be honest, not all friends are great. There are fair-weather friends, not truly there for us when we absolutely need them … others are sometime-friends, hit and miss as much as anything … yet others may call themselves friends but are actually as much against us as for us. There is a difference in my mind between having a friend and really making a friend. Friends we make also make us … that’s where God comes in.

I love the quote for another reason … to me it relates to seeing Jesus in others. We read in Scriptures how strangers became followers, people became believers, and disciples became friends. The Last Supper is Jesus bringing together some of his closest friends, people that fully believed in him … and that is one of the best traits a great friend can have, believing in us. Never doubting our motives or our need. Just believing unconditionally.

I have a best friend like that and all I do is wish him great success in his life, and I’m there whenever he needs me. We are God’s finger for each other.

Losing Everything, Except What Matters

From an article in the New York Times, about a family in Alabama … “His name is Corey Soper and he is 33. He lives just outside Tuscaloosa, but works as a welder on a pipeline in Nevada, because that is where the work is. Now, after a heart-pounding day of worrying from a distance for the safety of his wife and two young children, he was coming home to a broken house, clutching a blue luggage ticket that represented the only clothes he had left.

And yet he considered himself lucky, so very lucky. His family is safe, he said, his voice tight. “And now we can build new memories.”

Their house is on Rifle Range Road in Cottondale, where the roof has been swept away, bits of insulation cling to the grass like artificial snow and an eight-foot tree branch pierces the living room wall. This is the home of a very fortunate man.

In time, Mr. Soper led a small army of power-saw-toting relatives and friends in clearing the jumble of fallen trees from his two-acre lot. If a tornado’s call sounds like freight trains and swarms of bees, humankind’s response sounds like growling, determined power saws

He worked through the warm day, not a cloud in the sky, and into dusk, well aware that others in this state were mourning their dead. Sweat-stained and flecked with sawdust, he occasionally looked up to see his wife and his two children in their altered yard, working, making new memories.

His house nearly destroyed, he felt blessed.”

We are in fact blessed in so many ways, and we don’t need a disaster to remind us. But it is in crisis … in our lives or in others’ lives … that we most clearly understand what is truly important. Celebrate life … that is the richest blessing we all have.

And know that anything lost can be replaced. Except life.

Stay on Your Hustle

Just saw this in an article about Russell Simmons, in which he gives his advice to entrepreneurs. But it speaks to all of us: "Be passionate about what you do. Stay on your hustle. Don't quit."

I like that ... stay on your hustle ... that's what this prayer blog does for me, keeps me working at my writing, my hustle and the passion I have. It is a way to share and to leave a legacy to my children, if only of my thoughts day to day.

Too I am more passionate about my faith, through this blog and the people who I am surrounded with. I learned faith first from my mother, devout beyond measure and perhaps overbearing at times. After all, I walked away from the church for a time. But with age comes understanding and I know I am better for her example.

I pray that we all have a hustle … a special passion … something than can help us focus our future. And a hustle that can benefit the world we influence ... 

For Marcy and Susan

Today I pray for a friend ... and for a friend of a friend. Two women joined by their husbands' passions for car racing, and now by their journey to God. Lives too short ... deaths too soon ... but now in the clouds together, watching over their families. Together in love and in faith.


Their husbands grieve in a way that those of us not in their situations can never imagine. Raw grief filled with memories they can touch, raw grief filled with memories never made, years never lived together. Widowers are more rare than widows, so today I pray too for their husbands, left to think and pray and live in a new way. 


Please pray for my friends Greg and Marcy, and for their friends Don and Susan ...