Thursday, 01 November 2007

• Currently Listening Overflow By Matt Maher Come To The Water see related

  Can I get in trouble for this? Not sure!

  But here’s my vulnerable heart on my ratty thermal sleeve.

  I worked extra diligently in my last “semester” of full-time work, knowing very well that I would not have a chance to exercise my “clout” any more afterwards.  If I was dedicating the prime of my life, why not give that prime to God 110%, as well as every relationship established since I’ve known Him.

  [On this “clout”: for some reason when you are dubbed a “full-time worker” in the CFC world, you gain an advantage.  You can say something and it means something.  You can fight for something and gain an instant following.  Of course, people don’t choose to do this work because of this, but it obviously happens.  On the other hand, as an eff-tee-dub… you get a lot of criticism and pressure because of the title.  Such is life, isn’t it?  Haha.  Praise God for it all ]

  I loved my two years of pastoral work.  However, something that disappointed me greatly during this time was two things -- two rather large things.  One thing was that the youth and singles (a lot, not all) forgot about the essence of the service and the essence of even belonging to the family community (formerly united as Couples For Christ).  It had gotten so much about the work, the structure, the schedule, the supposed duties and pointing out when people didn’t do them.  These functionalities were more of focus rather than checking to make sure everyone was praying first and foremost, or rather than learning who about each other and not being afraid to talk about God and spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit and emotions about how God overwhelms them.

  The second thing that disturbed me during my “term” was that youth and singles tread a thin line when they evangelized: the line of accommodation.  I’d notice every now and then that we would be catering so much to the strangers and the people we wanted to evangelize to, that we forgot what WE wanted to tell THEM.  We forgot who we were.

  We forgot what we stood for.  We forgot that we contribute positive light to the world and that we don’t need to water it down.  We forgot that love is always more important than function, and that there is a difference between the law and the Spirit of the law.  We forgot that people benefit from the truth we have to proclaim simply because it is Jesus and not us.  (Who are we to them, anyway?)

  And I switched to a collective “we” in this entry, because I lamented my weaknesses as well.  I saw the plank in my own eye.   I, too, forgot who I was.  And this is why 2007 is a memorable year for me.

  It is because after all this “forgetting” of our convictions, our omnipotent God brought us through a journey of lamentations in order to see a glorious hope.  [Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure  1 Jn 3:3]  We are still on this journey.  And I have seen some amazing things recently.  I have experienced more miracles.  I have listened to lives ablaze with the Holy Spirit.  I have cried in witness to the awesome and mighty deeds of God that still continue among the singles and youth.

  Blessed are we!!! 

  A priest I know wrote about today’s feast of All Saints.  He said: “Today we celebrate the feast of all the unknown saints who are not in heaven. The Church reminds us that sanctity is within everyone’s reach. Through the Communion of Saints we help one another achieve heavenly glory.”

  We are created to be saints.  This day is also in celebration of us.  For those saints who have gone before us…And those saints waiting to reach the glory of heaven above.

  Who do you want to be? 

  May we repeatedly come to -- remember – our convictions, to clearly see the kind of path we are on.  May that path be one that is not of waste to the Lord, but evident of one who wants nothing else than to inch closer and closer to heaven.

  I long for heaven.  For now I’ll take heaven on earth.  Love is the answer.

  I had a vision of a great multitude,
  which no one could count,
  from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
  wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
  They cried out in a loud voice:
  
  “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
  and from the Lamb.”

   [Rev 7:9-10]

   

   

  Forever and ever, Amen.

  [thoughts on my life in nj so far, to come.  settling-in still in progress ]

   

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