Wednesday, January 27, 2016


Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.

Resolute

     January is a time for us to take stock of the old year and move forward into the new.  It is arbitrary, but also necessary that we look at our lives and how we have served the Lord and one another...Have we Loved God, have we loved others, and just as important – have we loved ourselves?

     How easy it is to procrastinate on the things we really want to do. “Tomorrow” is always more attractive because we envision ourselves better able to conquer our fears, overcome challenges, and develop the motivation we need to move forward.  We don’t want to do these things now because we trick ourselves into believing that we don’t yet have the courage, time, money, experience or resources that will make it feasible.

     However, the problem occurs when tomorrow comes and we find ourselves still feeling intimidated, fearful, or hesitant to take action. Rather than pushing through feelings of resistance and taking action anyway, we find it easier to refine our plans, visualize our success, do further research – anything except leave our comfort zones and take action.  If we allow ourselves to be stuck in a cycle like this for too long, eventually we reach a point where we are almost paralyzed by fear.  We want to move forward and we know how important it is to break the hypnotic spell that holds us captive, but it seems impossible to do so.  The longer we stay locked into a cycle of inaction, the more effort we will need to break out of it. As time goes on, we find ourselves looking at what we’ve (not) created in our lives, feeling regretful about all the missed opportunities we could have taken advantage of, but didn’t.  We look at our level of success, our living conditions, the state of our physical bodies, and we feel shameful about squandering the gifts and talents we have.  We know in our heart we could do better, but we don’t.   Jesus reminds us over and over that the kingdom of God is here in each one of us and St. Paul reminds us that WE are the body of Christ.  So we are not only limiting our own potential but that of Christ’s presence in the world today.  There’s a popular Christian song that proclaims God’s love is bursting into our world through a million doors and one of those doors is YOU!

     Do yourself a favor: take action NOW!  Don’t wait until tomorrow.  Don’t let your dreams die a slow, neglected death.  As illustrated in Jesus’ parable of the Rich Fool, don’t run the risk of believing that you have all the time in the world.  Don’t let another day go by that you will later look back at what you didn’t do with regret. If you begin by taking even small steps forward, taking action on even the tiniest of aspirations, you will gain confidence. Before long, you’ll grow to love the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction you get from moving forward. Then you will be able to look back at each “yesterday” with a feeling of pride about what you’ve been able to accomplish. Don’t leave the world with your song unsung; for where your passions and gifts meet the world’s needs – there you’ll reflect the kingdom of God.

And remember that you are not on this journey alone – God is with you – ALWAYS!

Have a Blessed and Happy New Year!

Your faithful servant,

carmen 


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