How Big is God?

A man on the radio the said the other day, "The way you see God affects all aspects of your life.  If you see God as big, then you're problems will be small in comparison, but if you see God as small then you may think you have big problems."

The other day I was hanging out with some friends and the conversation turned to pets and how they worried about their pets when they went on vacation.  One couple admitted that they worry so much about their dogs that they stopped taking vacations all together.  This surprised me quite a bit, I'm used to people worrying about money, or sickness, or jobs, but this was the first I'd heard about worrying over a pet's well being while on vacation.  Several people in the group admitted to this same concern.

In times past, or in places not inundated with abundance, people worried over basic necessities, would they have enough food to eat, or clothing to wear?  But now, a lot of people whose basic necessities are met, are worrying over other things.  I too have done quite a bit of worrying over things that in the grand scheme of things don't really matter all the much.

In the Bible I'm sure you'll recall that Jesus said this about worrying, [Matt 6:25-33] "²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

When it comes to our relationship with God, it is normal and expected to see ourselves as helpless children and to see God as our Father who provides everything for us including our very life and breath.  In fact to not have this perspective is very hurtful to God, because He loves to provide for us and created us to be totally dependent on Him.  

Here is what Jesus says to St. Faustina in her Diary about this subject. "Distrust on the part of souls is tearing at My insides.  The distrust of a chosen soul causes Me even greater pain; despite My inexhaustible love for them they do not trust Me.  Even My death is not enough for them.  Woe to the soul that abuses these [gifts.]" 

As we can see Jesus takes it very personally when we worry and fail to place our trust in Him.  So I ask again how big is God?  If you believe God created everything that is in existence including the entire universe then you believe in a big God, an eternal, unending, amazing God!  It is true that many circumstances and events can cause us big worries, so it is important to practice placing our trust in God with our little worries, that way when bigger worries come our way we will know right away how to surrender our worry to the Lord, because we will be in habit of doing so.  

If you think that maybe because you're a Christian you will not have any problems, guess again.  It is through trials that we learn to trust and love God and our neighbors.  When I start thinking, why would God allow problems to befall me if I am faithful to him?  It helps to think about Jesus, His parents could not find a inn when Mary was nine months pregnant ready to have the baby and Jesus was born in a barn!  If the King of the Universe was allowed to be born in a barn, then those of us who had the privilege of being born in a hospital or loving home better starting counting our blessings starting with our birth!  Every life will experience some sort of trouble or trial, some are big some are small, but all can be offered to God and he can transform the bad into something good.  

An example of this is one of my cousins.  One of his daughters died of cancer when she was only a teenager.  This was tragic and heartbreaking for everyone, many years latter however he decided to start his own non-profit to help other kids with cancer and their families.  He has helped so many people and is a real inspiration to others!  I think it is unlikely that this would have happened without the prior experience of tragedy.  I don't think that God took his daughter because he knew it would cause her father to help others, rather I think God was able to work a great good out of something we see as a tragedy.  

So let us start learning to trust in God, when you feel a worry coming on, say "Jesus I Trust in You."  You may have to say this many times a day or even an hour, but eventually you will start to believe it, and when you do your worry will be replaced with peace and calm no matter what the situation is.  May God bless you all.

Our Friends the Saints

The Saints

The Catholic Church has recognized thousands of Saints from all walks of life and from all over the world.  Young or old, rich or poor, there is a Saint who has lived a life similar to yours and struggled with something you struggle with.  One of the coolest things about the Saints is that they are actively seeking to assist all of us who remain on Earth and those in Purgatory.   

My First Saint

I received the Sacrament of Confirmation in High School.  Part of the preparation was to choose a Saint who we could relate to and who would keep an eye out for us and pray for us during our lifetime as full member of the Body of Christ.

I choose St. Cecilia.  I choose her because I like to sing and she is the patron Saint of Musicians, and because my Baptismal godmother shares her name.  As a teenager that was all the thought I put into choosing a Confirmation Saint. 

The First Saint who Choose Me

I have read, and believe to be true, that Saints go out of their way to find souls on Earth they can relate to and desire to assist and try to gain their attention.  They try to gain our attention because souls on Earth and in Purgatory must ask for heavenly assistance.  Assistance from God and the Saints is not automatically granted to us on Earth unless we give our consent to receive that assistance, otherwise it would be a violation of our free will.  Even the Angel Gabriel had to ask for Mary's permission before the Holy Spirit could come upon her.  

Since Saints are not often granted the ability to simply appear to souls on Earth they have to reach us in more subtle creative ways.  Such as placing a book about their lives in our path, or a prayer card or leading us to a particular church that is named after them.  

The first such Saint that reached out to me in this way, was St. Therese of Lisieux.  When I was a teenager my grandma, Florance, gave me the book The Story of a Soul which is St. Therese's biography.  I read it and I did not like it.  I thought St. Therese was crazy and strange and I could not relate to her at all.  Her humility and little way seemed very unappealing to me and I promptly lost the book somewhere.  May years later after graduating from collage and going through a sort of falling away from the faith and a reversion back to the faith, I was visiting my parents and my mom gave me the same copy of The Story of a Soul my grandma had given me years before.  My mom had kept it for me, not knowing that I had not enjoyed it before.  I took it with me and decided to read it again.  I could not believe the difference, I loved it!  While I had not been spiritually ready to understand or accept Threse's teachings before, I loved everything about her this time around. Her spirituality is so simple in idea yet difficult in practice, she gives the world a great example to live by with her holy life.   

I also learned of two interesting things that made me realize it was no accident that St. Therese had an interest in helping me draw closer to the Lord.  She and I were both born on January 2nd and we were born 111 years apart.  Also, one of St. Therese's favorite Saints was St. Cecilia and she had visited her tomb before joining the Carmelites.  I found this particularly interesting since I had chosen St. Cecilia seemingly by chance as my Confirmation Saint years before without knowing this.

   

Such a Large Family 

The Kingdom of God is filled with thousands of Saints and Angels.  Since my first realization that the Saints desire to be a part of our lives, to pray for us, and to walk with us, I have had many other Saints who have prayed for me and helped me out during my lifetime.  They have made themselves known in different ways, such as Saint Medals I received, stories shared by faithful friends, books, etc.  Here are some more of my favorite Saints I want to give a shout out of thanks to:

Mary Queen of Heaven & number one Saint

St. Martin de Porres 

St. Raphael the Archangel

St. Elizabeth

St. Monica

St. Franciss of Assisi

St. Faustina

St. Philomena

St. Padre Pio

I'm sure there are probably many more Saints who deserve my thanks as well, and I certainly hope to meet them and thank them all someday.  I would love to hear their side of the story and how they had a hand in the events all around me. 

The Saints can Help

As former Earth dwellers, the Saints know all about what life is like and the struggles and sufferings we all must endure.  God loves to see His children working together and distributes some of His graces to the Saints so they can share them with us.  Of course we can always ask for God's grace directly from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  But it never hurts to ask our friendly and loving Saints for help too.  The Saints do not have any power on their own to assist us, but receive all graces from God.  God is a community of three within His own being, thus He understands the meaning of friendship and fellowship more than anyone.  He is honored when we cooperate with his children, the same way any parent is lifted up when others see their children getting along rather than fighting. 

So keep your eyes, ears, and heart open to heaven, because a Saint may be trying to get in touch with you.  If you're not sure which Saint to talk to, ask Our Mother Mary for guidance, because she has a special interest in all of humanity.  Once you have found a Saint or two you can relate to, ask them to pray for you and to help you figure out how to love the Lord our God even more everyday. 

Inside Out gets Sadness Right [Spoilers]

Pixar's Inside Out was about five emotions personified into characters that live inside of a little girl's head and basically influence highly or even control what she does.  There are a lot of different messages mixed into the movie, some of which I agree with and some I don't.  But, overall it was fun movie that is worth seeing.  I'm only going to focus on one of the the way they handled sadness.

Sadness and Joy are the two main characters.  Joy is the leader and she is not a fan of Sadness.  Joy doesn't want Sadness to influence Riley (the little girl) in any way.  Joy attempts to ignore Sadness,  confine her to a tiny circle drawn on the floor, and even escape from her all together by leaving her behind.  This reflects the way people will do just about anything to escape from feeling sad, or pain, or especially any kind of suffering.  We have endless amounts of entertainment to distract us from any feelings of sadness, and a plethora of medications for even the slightest of discomforts, even the ones we cause ourselves such as eating so much food we get a stomach ach.

All of Joy's attempts to get rid of Sadness' influence backfire only causing more problems.  This is what happens to us when we ignore our sadness, run from it, or try to bury it deep within ourselves.  When we do this rather than dealing with the source of sadness we cause ourselves even more problems.

The best lesson in the movie occurs when Big Bong, Riley's imaginary friend, becomes so sad he can not continue their quest.  At this point Joy tries her best to cheer Big Bong up, but nothing she does works and she becomes frustrated with him because he refuses to be happy.  Sadness on the other hand sits down with him, listens to his pain, acknowledges how in makes him feel and enters into his suffering with him.  Big Bong is comforted by this and is soon able to return to his normal self.  This revels a very powerful way for us to help those we know who are suffering or depressed.  If you know someone who has experienced a tragedy or is going through something very difficult, we should not run from that person, or try to cheer them up, or even come up with solutions to try to "fix" them.  The most loving thing to do is accept them, accept that they are sad or suffering.  Be willing to empathize and be with them in whatever it is they are going through.  We don't have to become sad as well, but we should be willing to be calm, peaceful, and listen to them without interrupting or coming up with solutions.  Most of the time people don't need others to fix a situation for them, they just need someone to listen to how they feel and what they are going through.

Later, when Joy is all alone in the pit of forgotten memories, she finds happy a memories and rewinds it until it becomes sad.  She realizes that it was because of the sad moment that the happy moment was able to occur.  This revels a deep truth for us.  That without the experience of sadness we don't truly know what happiness is.  This is also true for pain and suffering, someone who has a healthy pain free body often takes that for granted until they experience some kind of pain.  Then it becomes clear what a blessing being without pain is.  Sadness, and pain enhance joy and pleasure.  Thus sadness and pain are allowed to co-exist with joy and pleasure so that when we experience something good we appreciate it more and understand it more because we know what it is like to be without it.

During our natural lives we will all experience some kind of sadness or pain.  This is not something to be afraid of or to be ashamed of.  Even Jesus experienced sadness when Lazarus died and in the garden before he was arrested.  The best thing we can do is acknowledge our sadness or pain and unite it to Jesus' suffering on the cross, asking Him to use it for the salvation of souls.  While the movie didn't point out this part, it did do a good job of showing that sometimes it is okay to be sad and that accepting your sadness for a time can bring about healing.

A Restless Heart

I am the kind of person that likes to keep busy.  When I'm at work, my best days are the one filled with so many tasks I may not complete them all by the end of the day.  At home, I tend to keep busy with must do tasks, such as buying groceries or doing the dishes.  If no must do tasks are available I  will usually go to entertainment.

When I'm going through some sort of crisis time in my life, such as dealing with an unexpected move, or job change,  I have so much to do there is not time to think, just do.  But, when everything is going well, it's then I start becoming restless.  Despite being in a very good situation, I start scrutinizing my life looking for any imperfections and I feel somehow dissatisfied.

I don't think I'm alone in this.  We are constantly seeking more of everything and yet are never satisfied.  I don't think this is a new problem either.  Since the beginning of time mankind has desired more.  [Genesis 2:16-17] "The Lord God gave man this order: 'You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad.  From that tree you shall not eat;.....'" we all know what happened.  Adam and Eve ate from the one tree they were forbidden to eat from.  They had everything, a great place to live, a relationship with God, all kinds of food, all the free time they wanted, and yet they were not satisfied.  If the first two people to ever walk the face of the Earth were not satisfied then how can any of us ever hope to be satisfied?

Adam and Eve's problem, like many of us today, is that they wanted to be gods themselves rather than relay upon God.  God happily gave them everything they needed, and yet when given the option to do it themselves they thought, 'yes, why rely upon God when we can be gods ourselves?'  [Gn 3:4-5] "But the serpent said to the woman: 'You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.'"  The desire for more was a part of the human race from the beginning.  God gave Adam and Eve everything and taught them good and bad Himself, but they wanted more, what if they could know of good and bad themselves?  What if they could be gods themselves?

Why did God create us this way?  Some have called it a God shaped hole in our hearts.  St. Augustine sums it up this way, "My heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee."  We were created to love and be loved by God.  Only God can satisfy us and He has made us so we feel incomplete without Him, because of His great desire to love and be loved by us.  His creations can often serve as a balm, but only He himself can calm our restless hearts.  When we try to do it ourselves we only end up getting ourselves into trouble because only God can see the whole picture and we were created to be in community with Him and with each other, not solo beings who live only for ourselves.

Adam and Eve knew God, but not entirely, God had not yet reveled the Trinity and thus mankind's understanding of God was limited.  We have a much greater opportunity to come to love and be loved by God today because we know of God the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.  However, our knowledge is still not complete.  It would not be surprising to me if human beings can never fully understand the greatness of God in all of their eternity, much less their lifetime.  So the ache in our hearts and the craving for more remains.

This craving is meant to draw us closer to The Lord's Sacred Heart.  We make a mistake when we seek to rely upon ourselves in our search for more and we start seeking fulfillment from the wrong things or from people who can not quench our desire for a perfect and infinite love.  Instead we must surrender more and more to God and allow Him to provide for us, this will bring us more peace.  

The trick is not fearing that restless feeling, but recognizing it as call from the Lord.  Perhaps the Lord is calling us to surrender something to Him, or perhaps He desires to be with us.  Perhaps the next time we get that restless feeling, like something is wrong with our lives, we should stop and allow the Lord to fill us up with His love and goodness, and simply be still for a moment in His presence.