Wisdom From Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [Spoilers]

Valerian didn't get very good reviews from most popular sources, but in my typical fashion I disregarded the "pros" opinions and saw it anyway.  I wanted to see Valerian since the first trailer came out because the visuals looked so good and the story seemed funny. 

While there were a few things that Valerian did wrong they did far more things right and it's the right things that make this movie worth seeing. 

Basically Valerian had great visuals, good story, much creativity, and was an overall fun movie to watch.  I care the most about moral lessons and themes of a movie, these are what make or break movies for me so this is what I'll elaborate on.  Please note, I'm only going to mention the good stuff, there were a few negative messages in this movie that you would need to watch out for if you were planning on watching this with your children, but it's the good stuff that made this movie a win for me.

Love 

The most impressive moment in the movie was Laureline's description of love.  While she and Valerian had a rather strange relationship, she proves that she knows what real love is about when when she tries to convince Valerian to give the Converter back to the Pearls.  She explains that love requires sacrifice and trust and sometimes it breaks the rules.  

Her description reminded me of the greatest lover, Jesus Christ.

• Sacrifice - Jesus sacrifices his life so that we may have the opportunity to live with him in eternity. 
• Trust - Laureline says "I'm not asking you to die for me, I'm asking you to trust me."  This is exactly what Jesus says to us.  He suffered and died for us so that we wouldn't have to, but he does desire our trust.  After all, he wants the very best for each one of us.
• Breaking the Rules - Jesus and his Apostles where known rule breakers.  They didn't sin, but they did break rules that were excessive and unloving.  For Example: They didn't always wash their hands before meals.  They didn't observe the strict no work policy for the Sabbath, they picked and ate food and healed people.  Jesus even talked to pagan women and lepers which was not permitted.  They broke rules in the name of helping people and loving those whom society excluded.

Laureline's insistence on giving government property back to the original owners in order to help them was the right call, and the loving thing to do despite the rule that said they should not.  Man's laws should only be followed so long as the law puts the good of the person first, when it doesn't it's a law that should be broken.

Forgiveness

The second best message in the movie was that of forgiveness.  The Pearl's ability to forgive the human race for the mass genocide of their people and destruction of their planet is truly impressive.  They gained a massive amount of intelligence very quickly a were no doubt capable of creating some kind of weapon to destroy humankind, but they display true wisdom and integrity of character by choosing to forgive.  Their forgiveness is not out of weakness, but true strength of character.  In today's world, that seeks revenge and retaliation for any harm done, this was a great example of choosing a better path, a path that leads to true happiness and peace.  This something that revenge can never provide.

Many are One

The Alpha Space Station was a great example of many different people coming together to create something great.  The real message here is that when people, or in this case aliens, act in a way that they are the very best versions of themselves they can create something great together.  Many of the different aliens types were very specialized and fulfilled a specific role for the benefit of the entire space station.  This is an updated example of the unity of the Body of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit as described in the Bible 1 Corinthians 12.  When each person uses the gifts they have been given well and they are not envious or worried about other people's gifts there is unity in the community.

There are bunch of other funny or cool things about Valerian that I didn't mention here.  Give it a shot it's worth seeing.

You are Important

Me & three of my friends God dropped into my life

Every person on earth is created by God.  God doesn't make mistakes.  Some people may feel like a mistake because they were born with some sort of mental, physical or even spiritual defect.  But, they are not a mistake.  Even those who appear broken have a purpose.  Those who used to be whole, but are now broken still have a purpose.  

Everyone shares a common overarching purpose, which is to learn how to love and be loved by God and we often learn this by learning to love each other.  We also have unique purposes based on our own gifts, circumstances, and people we encounter in our daily lives.  If you see someone in need, your purpose in that moment may be to help them, even if that help is simply an encouraging smile. 

If you stumbled upon this article I want to encourage you to find ways to reach out and help others.  Even if you feel like you're the one that needs the most help, you will find when you put others first you will be uplifted too.  Start with the people God has placed in your life.  The people you see every day and especially the friends you just happened to make seemingly by chance.  Your lives bumped into each other for a reason.  You may only have this person in your life for a short season before they are whisked on down the road to bump into other strangers who will be their new friends.  Do what you can for them now, make time for them.  The best gift you can give is simply your time and your presence.  That means listen to them when you're are with them, don't use your cell phone or do all the talking yourself.

One of my best friends is Christin.  God arranged everything in an amazing way for us to meet during a short window of opportunity in both our lives when we just so happened to be at the right place at the right time.  Now, my dear friend will be leaving me soon as she goes on to follow where God is leading her next.  He's chosen her to be one of the few people who is called to give their entire lives to finding and helping the lost, the broken, the sick, the dying.  Not everyone is called to this extream sacrificial life, but some are.  If you are reading this, I hope you can help Christin answer God's call by giving a bit of the treasure God has given you, to empower her to go out and help others however God wills it.  With that, I give you Christin's crowd funding site: https://www.youcaring.com/christintripi-750318  This site will be ongoing until May 2017.  Remember if you ran into this article it's more likely it was for a reason than coincidence.  Thank you & God bless you!

Descanso Gardens - Enchanted Forest Jan 2017

Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, CA had and "Enchanted Forest" event this past Christmas season.  I visited for my birthday.  This event took place at night and featured different parts of their botanical gardens lit up with all kinds of different lights and sounds.  Some of the exhibits were interactive, such as two large "lily pad ponds" made up of large plastic circles that changed colors when you stepped on them.   

I'm not going to explain everything, just take a look at these pictures and know it was all much more impressive in real life!

Am I being lied to?

Have you ever wondered if you believe a lie?  There are lots of things we simply do not know for certain.  Can we trust what the majority says is right and true?  I lived as a victim of a lie for many years.  I became so convinced the lie was true that it became a subconscious fact.  The lie I believed was that I thought it was wrong to be happy.  I thought being happy meant I was doing something bad.  As with all lies, this belief was incredibly harmful to me psychologically, emotionally and spiritually.  Thankfully others helped me to see the lie for what it was, a lie, and once it was revealed to be a lie it held no more power over me.

I am convinced that the majority of people in this time period have been deceived by a lie.  Not the same lie I was deceived by, but a different lie.  I know that it is easy to fall for a lie, especially when you are told the lie from someone you trust or admire.  This particular lie, that has duped the masses has been widely accepted as truth.  It is promoted and backed by huge organizations. Millions of dollars are spent on promoting this lie.  They say it will bring you happiness, pleasure, fun, fulfillment, love, but it won't.  In will do just the opposite. It will bring you things like shame, sadness, depression, sickness, anger, loneliness, and fear.

So what is it?  I've already given you some clues.  If you can figure out what this lie is without me telling you, it will be easier for you to admit that it's a lie.  It will be easier for you to realize this thing you thought you were doing right and that you thought was helping your relationships, and could help you find true love, peace, happiness, fulfillment, was actually causing you psychological, emotional, spiritual and even physical pain.  If you can see the damage the lie is doing to you, if you can admit it to yourself, you can become free of it.  Not on your own, though.  It will be almost 100% guaranteed that you will be unable to become free from this lie by your own power.  Do not despair, because there is also a 100% sure fire way to become free from this lie, but it's hard.  You're probably thinking, "She's trying to sell me something..."  Yes and no.  I'm trying sell you an idea.  It's free of cost if you only think of the cost in terms of money.  It's not free if you think of cost as something else, in this case giving up something highly enjoyable, yet at the same time highly dangerous.

Perhaps you've guessed what I'm talking about by now.  If you have feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph.  If you haven't let's do this exercise.  Think back on the last movie you watched.  I don't know what your movie is, but if it's anything like the last movie I watched you're likely going to see the lie being promoted as something that is wonderful.  It's touted as something that will bring you much pleasure and happiness.  It is also shown as normal, so it may not stand out to you, you need to think, what is shown as right, and normal, but is actually wrong, and harmful?  The last movie I saw was Passengers.  The lie was quite prevalent, but at the same time could easily be overlooked.  Ok maybe you don't watch movies, think back to the last few tv shows you watched.  Maybe you're anti-technology, fine think about the posters and banners you saw in the department store you last visited or the magazine covers you saw while standing in line at the grocery store.  The lie is beaten into us like a never ending drum beat.  It's there in your subconscious whether you like it or not.  Unless your blind, and deaf, you've encountered this lie many times already today.

Ok if you have or have not guessed what I'm talking about read on.  I'm going to speak plainly now.  I am telling you this because if you can accept that the following is a lie then you change.  If you can change you will find yourself happier and more fulfilled and overall you will have a better life.  This is a lie: Go ahead and be free, be free and have sex with whoever you want whenever you want.  If you do this you will have more friends, you will be happy, you will feel good about yourself.  You don't need some contract or piece of paper tying you down to one person.  This is the lie promoted in nearly every movie, tv show, advertisement, internet site, magazine, etc.  Why?  Because if you believe this lie if you listen and obey this lie you will be enslaved.  You will be enslaved to your own self.  You will not be happy, you will do so much harm to yourself you will need lots of medications for your depression, anxiety, and fear.  You'll need diet pills, clothing, and products to make yourself "more appealing" and to boost your self-esteem, and all of these things cost lots and lots of money.  And who profits?  The businesses that make the medications, the clothing, the makeup, the shoes, all benefit from your own enslavement and self-destruction.  But shhhh now.  To say sex is wrong is to hinder my freedom! It's is to go against what is natural, it's to restrict my rights as a human being.  That's the thing.  You are free.  You're free to enslave yourself.  You're free to harm yourself.  In fact, some are even fighting now to make you free to kill yourself.  After all, we all know funerals are expensive and there is a profit to be earned there too!

I hope you can admit that you or someone you know has been harmed by sex.  If you can admit that, you can start the process to fix it.  Am I saying sex is evil and harmful and we should stop having sex?  NO that's crazy if we did that we would not last long before we would be on the endangered species list.  What I'm saying is you've been lied to about what sex is.  You've been told it is for you to have a good time, and to enjoy yourself fully as a human being without consequences.  I'm going to tell you a secret now.  I'm guessing it's a secret since not many people seem to know about it.  Sex is not bad!  Sex is not dirty or naughty or dangerous!  When and only when done correctly!  The correct way to have sex is to choose one person out of all the people on the entire earth.  Someone you really love, someone you love to spend time with, and someone of the opposite gender than your own because this person fulfills what is lacking in you, physically, mentally, spiritually.  Commit your life to this person through marriage, where you will promise to be with this person no matter what!  No matter if they drive you crazy in the future or if they decide to grow a mullet, you will love them no matter what because that's what love is.  It is putting the needs and wants of the other first.  You will sacrifice everything for this person up to and including your life in need be. Then and only then after you have made this commitment to each other you will give yourself to the other person it's what's called the marital embrace, aka sex when done right, as a wedding gift to the other person, not for your own pleasure but for theirs, and this is the correct way to use the gift of sex.  It is something holy, powerful, beautiful, awe inspiring.  It binds two people together for life and sometimes it allows them to participate with God in the creation of a brand new life.  This is the only way to use the gift of our sexuality in a way that will not damage us because we are royal beings with great honor.  We have the honor of being made in the image and likeness of God.  Which means we are the only physical beings made that can reason and come to know our creator God.  Because of this, our bodies have great dignity.  When we use them incorrectly, as mere playthings for our own pleasure, we hurt ourselves and others because we instinctively know we are demeaning our own self-worth.  Our souls cry out in torment when we degrade our bodies.  So arise all you people enslaved by premarital sex, adultery, fornication, pornography, shake off your heavy chains and arise to the glory you were made for.

I said before it will be almost 100% guaranteed that you will be unable to become free from this lie by your own power.  If you are a slave to any kind of sexual addiction you can be free if you admit that what you're doing is wrong.  Then desire to be free and to change.  Then I want you to admit that you do not have the ability to be free of these chains on your own and ask God Almighty, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, to help you.  You really have to mean it and you have to surrender yourself to God's mercy.  God is not mad at you.  He is not disgusted by what he has witnessed you do to yourself and others, he is sad that you, one of his own created works of art has spoiled yourself.  He desires greatly to help you, to love you and to forgive you.  He wants you to rise up and become the masterpiece he created you to be.  The noble, brilliant person, unique in all the world.  He will help you.  If you do not believe in God, then start believing right now!  It's ok I won't tell anybody!

Now go, surrender to God, allow him to fix you then sin no more and be magnificent!

Want more help?  This site has a ton of recourses to hep you get started: http://chastityproject.com/

PS. If you are worried that you will never find the right person to love for all your life and marry and that sounds like and impossible task, read this book: http://chastityproject.com/products/how-to-find-your-soulmate-without-losing-your-soul/  Peace be with you brothers and sisters.

How to overcome Depression and Self-hate

I am not an expert, but I struggled with depression and self-hate for many years in the past.  I recently came across a forum post about depression.  This person was suffering, considering suicide and reaching out to the internet for support.  Many others admitted to feeling the same way as the original poster and did their best to offer helpful suggestions.  But as the ancient story goes "Can one blind person guide anther?  Surely both will fall into a pit." Those who are currently struggling with depression and self-hate themselves do not give the best advice.  The following suggestions are based on my own experience with overcoming self-hate and depression.

Suggestion #1 - Watch what you eat

No, I'm not talking about food!

The world tries its best to drag you down.  If you're struggling with self-hate, I'm betting the phrase "watch what you eat," immediately conjured up thoughts about all things you don't like about your body.  Society tries to make us focus on the wrong thing so we'll be too distracted to think about the things that actually matter.  By getting people to obsess about their appearance, they can be sure to make a profit selling makeup, diet pills, overpriced 'health' foods, etc.  

Here is what I mean by "Watch what you eat," and I hope this will be the idea that comes to mind when you hear that phrase from now on.  Watch what your mind, heart, and soul are consuming!  Our mind, heart, and soul are fed by the music we listen to, the tv shows and movies we watch, the social media sites we visit, and more.  What are you feeding your innermost being with?  One of the most life changing things I did was to stop listening to popular music!  I have found that I am very sensitive to messages about life and how I feel about myself when that message is accompanied by music.  Changing the music I listen too was the first thing that helped me to start breaking free from the chains of depression.  It wasn't easy!  I decided to try to listen to a Christian radio station called Air1.  You can find a station or listen online here.  When I first started to listen to this station, I thought the music was awful.  The beats didn't seem as catchy as the popular music stations I was used to and the songs seemed quite drab to me.  However, I wanted to give it an honest shot so I forced myself to listen to this station anytime I was driving.  It wasn't long before I had learned some of the songs and was singing along.  Once the songs became more familiar to me I enjoyed them more.  Eventually, I enjoyed them so much I began enthusiastically telling others about the great new music I had discovered!  Now I have been listening to this station for many years and I know nearly every song, except brand new ones, of course, and I will not go back to traditional 'popular' music.  Sure there are a few 'popular' songs I hear every now and then that I like, but when I do happen to hear a 'popular' station while out shopping or riding in someone else's car, I find that many of the songs drag me down and speak death rather than life into me.  My heart and soul are filled with so much encouragement, love, and peace when listening to Christian radio that the sad tales told through 'popular' music no longer satisfies me.  

Now I know some people don't hear the lyrics, their mind just filters all that out and they only hear the beat.  If that's you I suggest listening to music with no words at all, that way you can be sure that there is no subliminal messaging dragging you down.

Other people are not into music at all, but you're probably into something, video games, movies, tv shows, books, social sites, etc.  Whatever it is, do your best to guard your heart, mind, and soul by watching things that will help lift you up rather than drag you down.  I know this is easier said than done and it is still a big struggle for me too.

Suggestion #2 - Seek the root 

In my experience depression and self-hate are symptoms of some kind of misunderstanding or damage done in the past, not the actual problem themselves.  That means focusing on the depression/self-hate is not going to solve the problem.  The root of the problem must be found.  It may be one problem or a whole bunch of problems, but until the actual roots are destroyed the symptoms will live on.  For example, after several years and many emotional discussions with my boyfriend, he was able to help me discover the root of my depression was the fact that I believed being happy was a bad thing.  This was not something I remembered right away and it took a long time for me to recall this bad seed that was planted in my mind as a child.  Once this root was found I saw it for the lie it was and it no longer held me captive.  I was free to be happy.  I realize that may be a mild example, but it was devastating for me. For years I lived dragging myself down, calling myself all kinds of nasty names, anytime I felt I had been happy for too long.  This was a habit and I couldn't recall where it came from or how it started until I was questioned about it so intently that I was forced to look back and back into my past and discovered where this behavior originated.  You may need to seek some counseling if you don't have a trusted non-judgemental friend who can help with this. 

Suggestion #3 - Prayer

The Creator of the Universe, Jesus Christ, fully understands the pain one feels due to depression and self-loathing.  When I realized this fact, I realized I was not alone.  One of the worst things about depression is the thought that nobody understands how you feel and that you're alone, trapped in the confines of your own mind.  Well, thanks be to God that is not true!  I was in a great pit of despair one day, at the end of my rope, and didn't know where to turn for help.  In desperation, I went to the local Church.  As I sat there the story of Jesus' agony before He was arrested to be crucified came to mind.  I remembered how He was so upset He was sweating blood.  That's when Jesus revealed to me that He understood my pain because He had experienced it Himself.  This knowledge was a huge game changer for me.  To have someone understand me, meant the world to me.  That's why I highly encourage you not to run from Jesus when you feel depressed, but to run to him!  He is not going to condemn you, He wants to comfort and console you. He wants to heal your broken heart no matter what you have done.  He understands it all and He truly wants to help you.  You don't have to say anything, or you can simply admit you don't know what to do and ask Him to save you from yourself and your depression.  

Finally

If you can do these three things, avoid things that drag you down spiritually and emotionally, really discover what the cause of your feelings are, and surrender it to Jesus, you can be free of depression.  You can begin to live as a prince or a princess in Christ. You can begin to love yourself because you are loved by God.  Don't give up, realize you are probably not strong enough to overcome this yourself you need God's power and strength to lift you up.  Support from friends and family is helpful, but if you don't have those don't worry, God's strength is enough.  Just admit simply, "Jesus I can not do this, please help me." then be open to His help.  For anyone reading this who is in a tough place right now, I pray that you will be healed of your afflictions and may shine brightly as beautiful person you are.  In Jesus name, Amen.

The Resurrection Flowers

This past Easter Sunday I was out taking a walk when I noticed something strange, a little way off the path there were some upside-down black plastic flower containers.  I went over to investigate and was surprised to find these little pots still had flowers in them.  The soil was completely dry and the flowers were beaten up and partially crushed, but they still had some green in so I deemed them worth saving.

I carried them home and popped them into the kitchen sink since the first thing they needed was a nice drink.  To my surprise and horror really some kind of nasty bugs came crawling out of the pots as they filled with water!  I don't know what kind of insects they were, but they were creepy looking and I didn't want them in my house so I hurriedly smashed them all.  After a good soaking, I gingerly carried them to the balcony still paranoid that more bugs would come crawling out.

I figured I should wait a little while to see if they managed to come back to life in full before repotting them.  After only a week and half they were standing up straight, full of color, and even starting to bloom!

It looked like they were going live so it was time to repot them.  I picked up some nice bright happy pots and gave them a new home.

In the next month, they doubled in size and are continuing to live happily to this day.  There was a bump along the way when it reached 108 F or so one day, which is really rare for California, and they got sun scored.  I moved them to the shade and they are coming back quite nicely again.  

Why Resurrection Flowers?

Why have I decided these begonias are resurrection flowers?  Well, I found them on Easter Sunday and they were practically dead and came back to life.  That's the simplest answer.  But, I did think the whole story is rather symbolic of a Christian conversion story.

Here is what the story symbolizes to me:

The flower is like the soul.  This soul was found in dry and withered state.  It was crushed and bruised, by the weight of the world bearing down on it.

The flower could not help itself from the dire situation it found itself in. Without outside help, it would surely die.  A soul can not help itself out of the grip of sin on its own.  A soul must allow God to lift it out of ditch, and set it back on solid ground.  God will never give up on any soul no matter what state He finds it in, but if a soul is unwilling to allow God to help it, it will surely die the eternal death. 

The flower was brought back to life through water and the sun, while a bruised and broken soul is brought back to life through the sacraments particularly Baptism, and contact with the Son.  When the flower was drenched in the life-giving water, harmful insects were expelled out of its container.  When a soul is drenched in the life-giving water of Baptism, harmful sins are expelled from it and the soul is made perfectly clean and new again.

When the flower spent time in the sun, it thrived.  When the soul spends time with the Son it thrives.

Sometimes the heat of the harsh world will cause the flower to wither, just as the soul will sometimes fall back into sin.  But the flower can be renewed when its environment changes and a soul can be renewed when it is cleansed anew by the sacrament of Reconciliation then strives to change its habits and environment so it does not fall into sin again.

The flower makes beautiful blooms when it is alive and healthy, just as a soul can be used by God to make beautiful things such as bringing encouragement, joy, or peace to others when it's is truly alive and healthy.

The question is which flower is your soul like? 

If you don't know where to start click Here for a bunch of awesome resources.  Or feel free to email me at findingfishes@gmail.com

The Giver - Review [Spoilers]

The 2014 movie The Giver recently showed up on Netflix.  I didn't see it when it came out in theaters because I had read the book when I was in 5th or 6th grade and I remembered it being too depressing because I felt the premonition of what the future was like was too close to reality.  I remember the book also had a very unsatisfactory ending.  

This movie adaptation, however, is wonderful!  I literally watched it two days in a row because I enjoyed it so much!  

As usual, I am most impressed by movies with a strong moral message.  The strongest message I got out of  The Giver was about the dignity and value of human life.  In Jonas' society humans have been reduced to lukewarm puppets.  The don't have any ambitions of their own, they lack creativity and they no longer have any strong emotions good or bad.  Some aspects or their community are good, there is no conflict, no bullying, everyone has a purpose, and everyone is treated equally.  The dark underbelly is: if you don't fit into their perfect little world you are put to death!

As Jonas begins receiving the memories of people and cultures before his time he sees people fully living.  He experiences true joy, creativity, beauty, wonder, and love.  He also sees the darker side of humanity, greed, hatred, fear, pain, and death. All of these things are absent from his community.  In order to blot out the worst of humanities traits, they also had to blot out the best.  However, once Jonas understands what death really is, the loss of a unique person who is unrepeatable, he realizes his community did not get rid of the darkness of humanity, they sugar coated it and made it acceptable.  Jonas sees his "father" murder a perfectly healthy innocent baby simply because he was a twin.  The book elaborates more on this, explaining that twins were unacceptable because two people that alike could cause them both to stand out and gain extra attention either positive or negative.  So one twin was always killed after birth.  The book also explained that babies that had some sort of deformity or health problem, mental or physical were also killed.  Their society also killed off the elderly once they got to a certain regardless of their health.  

The memories Jonas saw of people dancing, singing, praying, enjoying nature and extream sports reminded me of the value of each human person.  No two people are alike and each individual is beautiful simply by living.  A newborn baby and a helpless elderly person are both just as valuable as everyone else.  People don't have to do anything for their life to be valuable they are valuable because they are children of God.  Each person's continued existence adds a value of its own to the world.  Jonas society did not recognize this and our own is headed right down that road.  A quick google search reveals that 60 - 90% of woman who's babies are diagnosed with down-syndrome before they are born decide to kill their babies via abortion.  As of 10/2015 5 states have made euthanasia legal.  Euthanasia primarily affects the elderly, the poor, and the terminally ill.  People who begin to see their lives as a burden on their loved ones or who can not afford health care may opt into suicide.  

We are losing the sense of value of each human life.  So often life can become about either trying to fit in with others or competing with others.  But what we are created to do is live fully as ourselves and become the person God created us to be.  There is no need to change just to fit in and there is no need to compete to be better than others.  We are supposed to love others not kill them.  If someone is sick we should love and take care of them not make them feel like a burden.  If an unborn baby is not "perfect" that doesn't mean we should kill them.  That baby still deserves to live.  Some people think if their unborn baby is sick or has some kind of problem that is it is more loving to kill them to spare them any pain they may experience in this world.  Everyone who has ever lived and ever will live will experience some kind of pain in their life, that is part of being alive.  The people in The Giver did not experience pain and they did not experience love either and hence were they truly alive?  That's what the movie wants you to decide.

God of the Impossible

This past week several of my coworks and friends have been caught up in the recent presidential debates and are fearful about what the future holds.  None of the candidates really stand out as someone who really exemplifies a good moral character with the best interest of the people in mind.  Another good friend sees how similar recent events are to the events described in the book of Revelation, and can't help but wonder how close we are to the end.  It is very easy to become caught up in all of this worry and fear and I found myself awake around 4am the other night wondering about the end of the world and the state of our country. 

This morning however, it dawned on me that God really loves to keep everyone on their toes and achieve impossible things.  Inspired by Fr. Gaitley's book 33 Days to Merciful Love I recalled how just when the world was at it's darkest moment.  When the King of the Universe our Lord Jesus was on the cross dying and all hope of the angle's prophecy to Mary seemed lost. (Luke 1:32-33) "He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end." Jesus is risen from the dead, accomplishing His most well known impossible feat ever.  So although the signs of the time may look bleak and there is a lot of uncertainty of the leadership of our country this very well may be the dark before the dawn.  The age of disobedience will come to an end eventually to be replaced by a new age, the age of obedience.

As human beings we overcome impossible odds and achieve impossible things all the time.  We travel at speeds of at least 65mph on a daily basis that was impossible in the days of horse travel.  We can talk to someone on the other side of the world in an instant, again Impossible! Much of our food can be warmed in in 30 seconds or less I doubt you can even start a fire that quick.  We do so many things on daily basis that would have been considered impossible to people in the past, that we would do well to recall that humans are created only in the image of God.  If we are but God's mere reflections how much greater are the impossibilities God Himself can achieve?

Throughout Jesus' public life there are so many documented miracles, it can sometimes be difficult to remember that even one miracle would put us in awe if it were to happen in front of us today.  I don't know about you, but I have never witnessed first hand a completely paralyzed man get up and walk, instantly cured.  Today we can artificially help the blind see and the deaf hear by means of technology.  Yet, we are only just now catching up to what Jesus was able to do thousands of years ago with a mere touch or a word, and we are no where near restoring sight or sound without technology.  That would be impossible right?  Wrong, Jesus did it and so did some of his followers.

What other impossible things did Jesus do?  Control the weather (Mark 4:39), defy the laws of nature aka walking on water (Matthew 14:25), defy the laws of math aka feeding over 5000 with only 5 loves and 2 fish (John 6:9-13).  But of course that's not all.  Just to top it all off, Jesus rose from the dead, then sent the Holy Spirit to dwell among us and gave His Church 7 sacraments in which He Himself and the Holy Spirit would continue to achieve impossible things until He comes back again. 

Probably the most impossible sacrament is the Eucharist.  Jesus is actually fully present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the form of bread and wine.  We know from scripture Jesus can take one substance and turn it into another.  He proves that with His very first miracle changing water into wine.  That alone should have been impossible, but it wasn't.  Then He goes a step farther and takes 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and multiples that so it's enough to feed 5000 men plus an unknown number of women and children with 12 baskets of left overs.  When God does impossible things He does so with abundance!  Finally He combines these two miracles together, cause you know, they just weren't impossible enough yet!  He wine and bread, as used in the previous two miracles, changes them and into Himself and multiples Himself so that every single little white host that is consecrated contains Himself fully no matter how many times it is divided!  Then He says believe that!  Of course at this point many people in Jesus time and people today say "no" they will not believe that because it is too extreme too impossible and they walk away. (John 6:66 interesting verse number humm?)

We are followers of a God who does Impossible things.  It should not surprise us that God can become bread and wine if he wants to, why not? God can do anything!  God created everything out of nothing.  If I were to say to you, "make me a cake," and you asked me what kind, and I said "I don't care, but you can't use anything to make it with."  I don't think I would be getting my cake anytime soon.  We can not create something out of nothing, but God can.  That's impossible for us, and so we say, "that's impossible."  We can not change our bodies into an inanimate object, and so we say, "that's impossible."  But, what does God say? (Luke 18:27) "What is impossible with man is possible with God."  Therefor the more impossible something seems the more likely it is of God.  The Catholic Church has been teaching the same truth for thousands of years from the time of Jesus until today and have not taught anything about faith or morals that is false despite being run by sometimes corrupt and sinful men. Yup sounds pretty impossible, therefor only God could have safeguarded His truth throughout the generations so it is still the same truth today.  

Perhaps other impossible things come to mind, three shepherd children see the Virgin Mary, or a man is reported to levitate.  Or a child is cured from an incurable disease, or a couple who's marriage was on the brink of divorce suddenly have a stronger relationship than before.  Or maybe you managed to slow down just before that car swung into your lane, or that woman that always scowls at you at work actually smiled and said hello today.  God and His angles and His Saints are very active in this world today, performing impossible things both big and small.  Refuse to believe in coincidences and see impossible things as the miracles they are.  As quoted by Mark Hart "Don't tell God how big your problems or fears are instead tell your fears and problems how big your God is!" And our God will do impossible things.

Cinderella the Saint? - [Spoilers]

I recently watched the 2015 live action remake of Cinderella.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch it due to some negative reviews I heard that said that the movie had a really bad message for young girls.  However, my sister convinced me to give it a shot.

It has been a very long time since I've seen the original 2D animated version, but my sister says this remake follows the original movie very well. I'm going to assume you know what the basic Cinderella story is and jump right into my thoughts.

Overall I thought this new version of Cinderella was fantastic!  I absolutely loved it!  Why?  Because the messages were so good and so strong.  I am a very big fan of movies with a morally sound messages and Cinderella was one of the best I've seen in a long time!  I'll explain this more in a minute.

I am also a big fan of fairy tale movies and while they usually have some good parts they also tend to have bad parts.  For example, Snow White and the Huntsman that came out in 2012 had some great moments, Snow White even prayed at one point which I thought was amazing for a modern movie.  However, the entire movie was ruined for me when Snow White killed her step mother.  If the step mother had been a symbol for sin and pure evil, such as many figures in the Old Testament I probably would have found this acceptable.  However, they actually made me sympathize with the Queen when they showed moments from her past which influenced her to become "evil."  After that I could not buy the idea the Snow White was somehow still pure and innocent after she killed the Queen.  She looked like a ruthless murderer to me. So that entire movie was ruined.

I was quite worried that something similar would occur in Cinderella.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when Cinderella actually forgave her step mother and step sisters despite how cruelly they treated her.  Her ability to forgive proved that her demeanor and personality throughout the entire film was genuine.  Had she cursed her step mother instead, or worse killed her, the entire movie would have lost it's creditably.

The Messages in Cinderella

Core Message

The most obvious message in Cinderella was the advice her mother gave her before she died.  It was advice she lived by.  "Have courage and be kind."

Cinderella did an amazing job and lived by this seemingly simple advice.  I say seemingly simple because courage and kindness have a huge amount of underlying implications when diving into and striving after them.

First of all, Courage, today we may think of courage simply as being brave when facing something that frightens us.  Such as mustering up the "courage" to squash a spider, or finally saying hello to someone we find attractive.  We sometimes think of these small things as courage, and in a sense they do take courage, but what we find in Cinderella is a type of courage that goes beyond overcoming our minor fears.

Cinderella's mother died early in the movie when she is a child.  She did not become gloomy, or depressed, instead she took to heart her mother's advice and tried to live in such a way that would make her mother proud.  Later her father died as well and she is left with her step mother and sisters who constantly teased her and treated her like a slave rather than a sister.  The basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and love are withheld from her when left alone with her step family.  She is denied proper meals, she didn't receive a new one like her sisters, she is sent to sleep in the drafty attic and resorted to sleeping by the fire place in the kitchen instead, and she lived with three woman who demand much love, but gave none in return.  She faced all of this without a complaint and made due with her situation the best she could all the while she maintained poise and a hopeful attitude.  Her behavior went beyond courage and into the cardinal virtue of fortitude!  Fortitude gives us the strength to face obstacles in this life such as poverty and loss of loved ones, both of which is depicted in the movie.  Fortitude is the virtue that enables martyrs to choose death rather than deny their faith. To find our more about fortitude visit this page.

Secondly Kindness. I have been reading the book "The Hidden Power of Kindness" by Lawrence G. Lovasik and have been learning that kindness is not simply being friendly or likable, but encompasses a whole list of virtues such as avoiding envy, jealousy and gossip and instead recognizing that we do not have the full picture about another person's situation so we would do well to give them the benefit of the doubt and see their actions and behaviors in the best light possible.  Seeing their potential for good rather than focusing on their flaws.

Cinderella practiced this kindness throughout the movie.  She shared what little food she had with those even more impoverished than herself, the mice in the attic. She quietly performed all of the chores and duties the step family assigned her without complaint and did them the best she could. It would have been far easier for her to demand respect since she was the lawful owner of the house.  Or she could have done the tasks with a vengeful or spiteful spirit and purposely done them poorly so that the meals she made were burnt or under-cooked, and the laundry ended up with holes or wrinkles.  But, Cinderella remained kind,  a put her step families needs above her own.  After all she recognized that even though she had lost her mother and father, her step sisters had lost two fathers in a very short period of time and they had moved away from their own home to her farm which was not as nice as the home they had left, in their opinion.  This is a lot for anyone to go through and likely caused them all a good deal of stress and anxiety.

Cinderella's kindness in this situation, that was obviously quite difficult for her, reminded me of St. Monica.  Some years ago I read the book "The Life of St. Monica" by F. A. Forbes.  This book described the way Monica was forced to leave her own family through an arranged marriage to a pagan man.  She lived with her husband, his mother, the household staff, and eventually their three children.  Her mother-in-law did not like her and as a result neither did the household staff.  In order to gain favor with their mistress the staff would make us stories about Monica and all of her "faults."  On top of that her new husband was known for his explosive temper.  Monica however, faced all of this quietly, doing her best to perform her duties well, and not complaining.  Her wonderful, truly feminine, countenance disarmed her husband's attacks and he never raised a hand to her.  After many years of prayers and living virtuously in this difficult situation, she won over her mother-in-law, and her husband, who both converted to her Catholic faith and their hearts were transformed.  Her eldest son had grown into an out of line man with vices of his own, but Monica won him over as well and he, St. Augustine, became one of the most influential and famous Saints of the Catholic Church.  Seeing Cinderella's similarity to Monica showed me that those who had said this new Cinderella had a bad message for young girls was not true.  If girls today live by Cinderella's example in this movie they could become Saints themselves someday, which of course is what we all should be striving to become.

Other Messages

But what about the old fashioned and obviously silly message this movie portrays, that of a woman being whisked away from a bad situation by a handsome prince who saves the day by falling in love with her?  Surly this is not a good message for young girls, in this day and age, when woman are taught they don't need men to "save" them from their problems, they can do it themselves, of if not by themselves, then at least with the help of another woman. (Frozen I'm looking at you.) They don't need saved by a man that is deeming to a woman.

This modern idea couldn't be farther from the truth and it is the harmful idea not the other way around.

First let's look at the book of Tobit in the Bible. This story features Tobiah, Tobit's son, and a girl names Sarah.  Sarah is possessed by a demon, although she doesn't know that.  She has been married seven times, but the demon has killed each of her husbands on their wedding night.  She is in despair over this thinking that she is cursed and so she prays that God would end her life.  God hears her prayer and sends the angel, Raphael to help.  Raphael doesn't go directly to Sarah, but instead brings Tobiah to her.  He gives Tobiah a cure that will drive the demon away from her.  Tobiah falls in love with Sarah and marries her, on their wedding night he prays and uses the cure made of fish to drive away the demon.  Raphael then chases down the demon and binds him so he can not attack someone else. Tobiah and Sarah have a great party and as far was we can tell live happily ever after.

This story takes place in 721 BC it features a woman being saved from her problems by a man.  Or does it? From Sarah's point of view she has found a husband who doesn't up and die the first time they are alone together, this is her dream come true.  To her it may seem that a man has saved her, but in fact God sent the Angel who sent the man.  In Cinderella her problems are solved when the prince saves her.  Or did God send the deer that drew the prince and her together and then sent the Angel (aka Fairy God Mother) who enabled her to attend the ball?  Disney of course is highly unlikely to acknowledge this, but we are free to interpret the movie however we want and if I had children this is how I would explain what happened in the movie.  Why?  Because truly God is the one saves us all, from our sin and our problems, but he often allows others to participate in the saving.

But using the story Tobit still indicates that this is an old fashioned idea.  I prefer to call it a timeless truth rather than old fashioned.  A timeless truth is something that does not change with time because it was ordained by God.  This truth was worked into the vary fabric of how a woman was created and this truth is, that a woman longs to be saved by a man.  Not just any man, the God-man, the perfect man, Jesus Christ Himself.  Woman are created as the reflection of God's Church, the Church he founded and loved so much he died for.  Thus woman desire from a very early age to be loved so perfectly by their lover that he would die for her.  A child of course does not know she is the reflection of the Church and that Jesus died for her, but she senses her royal bloodline as a child of God, and dresses as the princess she is and dreams of a prince to wisk her away to a castle in the sky aka Heaven.

Men on the other hand are the reflection of Jesus himself and can only truly become a man when he is willing to put all of his own needs and desires in second place and be willing to valiantly die for his bride like a true man of victory and honor.  These truths are worked into the very beings of men and woman and of course they vary in degree and intensity from one person to the next and can even be obscured entirely by the influences of the world, but there is no denying that in general the majority of woman have a strong desire to be loved and men in general have a strong desire to destroy anything that would wish to harm the one they love; just as Jesus destroyed sin and death. This is why from 721 to 2015 we can find stories throughout all of history of men saving woman and woman being saved by men.  It is not weak for a woman to be on the receiving end, the one being saved, it is her natural and rightful place because when a woman receives she takes what she receives and creates new life!  Only a woman can bring new life into the world both physically and spiritually.  Woman take the love they receive from God and from man and spread it around to everyone they come into contact with.  Or at least that's what they should be doing.  This is the rightful mission of woman, to receive all that God would give her and share it with everyone so that all may be blessed and come to know God themselves.  This is not weak, this is strong, it takes a strong person to freely give what they have received, rather than fearfully hoard it or cling to it so that it sours and become pain and bitterness rather than the love and joy it was meant to be.

This brings me to the last message in Cinderella that I want to point out.  Cinderella shows us that true beauty come from within.

At one point Cinderella watched her step sisters fight over their new ball gowns and argue about which one of them will win the prince's heart.  Cinderella pity's them, recognizing that their petty behavior and jealousy spoiled their beautiful exteriors.  It is the state of the inner soul that adds to or detracts from outward beauty, and the girls lack of kindness and love made their physical appearance seem ugly.

Cinderella, although she was given a lovely dress, wins the prince's heart by her kind demeanor and joyful personality.  One of the sweetest moments in the movie is when the prince takes her to his secret garden.  While in other films this would be the moment when the couple decides is a good idea to degrade their own self worth and give into their temptations, in Cinderella this was the moment when Cinderella's innocence and self control shines through and the princes honorable manners enable them both to enjoy the beautiful moment in purity and love without taking advantage of each other.  This is so rare in today's films that I was pleasantly surprised and awed that such a new movie would feature two such lovely moment like this.

Cinderella's purity is far more attractive to the prince than all of the other girls who flung themselves at him hoping that their physical appearance, wealth, status, and boisterous behavior will snag his attention.  But men are not attracted to woman who flaunt themselves, after all if they flaunt themselves to one then how many others have they done the same to?  Men recognize their own unique self worth and that they deserve to be loved not by what they can do for a woman, but because of who they are.  Some boys will "play around" with the girls that cling to any man like a cat, but it's the pure dove that only has eyes for him that will win his heart.  After all, only she is a worthy bride worth dying for. 

Divine Mercy Hit & Runs

We are a little over a month in to the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.  How can we help make this an extraordinary year?  

In Fr. Michael Gaitley's book "You Did It to Me." He talks about all kinds or practical ways we can put the Spiritual and Corporal works of Mercy into action in our modern lives.  This is great read for the Year of Mercy.  He has one suggestion that I would like to highlight, "Divine Mercy Hit & Runs."

Fr.'s suggestion is to purchase a box of a 1000 wallet sized Divine Mercy prayer cards.  Then pass them out to strangers we encounter on a daily basis such as cashiers, bank tellers, waiters & waitresses.  The cards can be purchased from his website: divinemercyart.org (Here is the direct link: https://secure.marianweb.net/divinemercyart.org/product.php?PC=DCOMCC5E&DID=130&PID=65110032&CLID=372&CATNAME=PRINT-CARD+COMBOS) 1000 cards only cost $14.95 with no shipping fee! 

I purchased a box of these cards awhile back.  I'm going to admit to you that I did not have the nerve to hand them out to strangers as Fr. suggested.  I'll blame this on being an introvert! Instead I've been putting them into the bills I mail out!  My sister told me she bought a box and has been putting them into magazines and books on store shelves.  She had a great idea of targeting popular books that are known for their blatant sinful content.  She also suggested leaving them on the table at a restaurant along with the tip.  

During this Year of Mercy I think it would be extraordinary if we Catholics could make this a nation wide phenomenon!  Divine Mercy cards showing up in the most unexpected places by the thousands or even hundred thousands all over the country.  This could be a visible symbol of the way God's Mercy is raining down on us during this Extraordinary Year!  If you like this idea, please let your Catholic friends and family know as well.  If every Catholic gave/placed one card then 1.2 billion cards would go out!  What a great way to tell the world God still loves us.

Advice from an Abalone

The other day I was visiting an aquarium where they had an abalone tank.  I had never seen a live abalone before and someone who loves slugs and snails of all kinds I was not impressed by the abalone.  It had a rather ugly shell and it seemed to be lacking the little eye stalks most snail like creatures have.

not my pic this is from google images

To me the abalone looked like a big black blob filling a shell. 

Last night I had a dream about swimming in the ocean and I found an empty abalone shell.  It was beautiful and pink inside.  It's the inside of an abalone shell is the beautiful part and each one is unique.  

not my pic

Although the outside of an abalone is unimpressive and rather ugly the inside is beautiful. 

I think this is like us sometimes.  Many people do not like the way they look on the outside, but on the inside they may be beautiful or in some cases someone may have gone to great lengths to be beautiful on the outside, but they have never worked on their inside.  The abalone shows us that true beauty is on the inside, but that beauty is only revealed when the abalone has died. 

All of us will die someday and when we do our inside will be revealed before God.  How much did we love?  Did we try to be kind, patient, generous?  These are the kinds of things that help our insides become beautiful.  Our inside beauty can far outweigh our outside beauty which fades away with time.

We can beautiful inside and outside, unlike an abalone, but it is the inside that matters more, because what we do on the inside lasts forever.  So remember to learn from the abalone and spend at least as much time working on your inside as you do your outside if not more. 

Adventure Quest #2 - Aquarium of the Pacific

Adventure Quest #2

Aquarium of the Pacific - Long Beach CA - 5 Stars

Last weekend I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific if you count Sea World this is the 2nd aquarium I've visited in California thus far. I arrived rather late in the afternoon and had about 2 hours to look around before they closed.  There were so many exhibits I was not able to see them all before they closed for the night. 

I consider this a top notch aquarium primarily because they had many tanks with living coral.  Out of the other 3 aquariums I've visited in recent memory only one of those, the one at the Henry Doorly zoo in Nebraska, had living coral.  The Aquarium of the Pacific had much more coral than any of the others I've seen thus far.  Live coral is a huge plus for me because sometimes you get to see cool interactions between the fish and coral.

It also makes the tanks look a lot cooler and more natural than having that fake plastic coral all over. 

 

This aquarium also had some very unique sea creatures I've never seen in real life before.  This was super exiting because I've visited aquariums and zoos all over the country my entire life, and sometimes it can be difficult to find an aquarium that has something I've never seen before.

They also had some outdoor tanks with sea lions, penguins, and sting rays and sharks.  I didn't get a chance to visit their shark tank, but the others were underwhelming compared to Sea World.  So if you're looking for fun touch tanks/larger sea creature tanks stick with Sea world for that.  Since that was not what I cared about this didn't bother me in the least and I just breezed by this section. 

The primary attraction was currently their jelly fish collection.  I was highly impressed by the variety of jelly fish they had.  Previously I have only seen jellies at the Henry Doorly zoo in the Omaha Nebraska zoo.  They have some very nice jelly tanks there but they only have two or three varieties and tanks.  The Aquarium of the Pacific on the other hand had many different types of jellies and they had them in different three stages of their life cycle.  I found the polyp and ephyra stages to be super cool.  The ephyra stage in particular was super neat because if you look at the tank from the distance it appears to be water with just a bunch of particles floating around, but when you take a look very closely you can see thousands of the tiniest jellies swimming around.  They were adorable because they seemed swimming around frantically and full of energy unlike the adults that always seem so calm and peaceful just drifting along. 

To my delight they even had these little bioluminescent guys (Cydippida) that I've only ever seen in nature videos.  Seeing them in real life was brilliant.  They produce a very wide range of colors and their light patterns seemed almost endless in variety.  They were a true delight to see. 

Overall I highly recommend visiting this aquarium.  

I give this adventure 5 out 5 stars.

Calling All Prodigals

The Prodigal Son @ Christ Cathedral CA

The Prodigal Son

Lately the story of the Prodigal Son has been on my mind because several news songs about it have been playing on the Christian radio station I like to listen to. [Luke 15:11-32]  In the story the youngest son demands his inheritance money from his father before his father has passed away.  Then he leaves his home and wastes all of the money on women, drinking, and all kinds of "debauchery," as the Bible says.  After some time the money runs out and  he has no food so he gets a job working for a pig farmer, but he isn't paid very well and even the food he is feeding the pigs looks appetizing.  So, in an effort to avoid starving, he decides to return to his home and work for his father as a servant.  His father, upon seeing him arriving, runs to him, greets him and throws a big party for him.  His father is not mad at him at all for wasting all the money.

The King of Mercy

I believe we are currently living in the age of the Prodigal.  Right now God is looking out the window just waiting to catch a glimpse of us on the road leading back to Him so he can run to us, greet us and throw us a big welcome home party!  I have come to this conclusion primarily from the writings of Saint Faustina and from Anne with Direction for our Times.  Both of these woman wrote down messages from Jesus with the central message of: Jesus is the King of Mercy.  His mercy is for everyone, He loves everyone, and He desires our trust in Him.

God's mercy is available in our current time more abundantly than ever before because we are nearing the final battle between good and evil, and the Lord desires to win as many souls as possible before He returns as The Just Judge.  This time of mercy may last only a short while, or thousands of years, we don't really know, what we do know is that God's mercy is available to us but we must ask for it and be willing to receive it.

What You Should Know About Heaven & Hell

In order to desire to receive God's mercy we must understand what the stakes are.  The battle I mentioned above between good and evil is a real battle going on throughout the entire world right now.  God is actively sending the angles, his graces, and mercy to anyone who is willing to receive them.  These will give them courage, strength and faith to choose the side of good and help with the work of Heaven, which is striving to bring other people into the fold.  

The devil is actively working to deceive people into believing that God and even himself do not exist so we will be lulled into an apathetic state where we do not care about anything spiritual or in some cases anything at all.  Or to shift people's attention away from God and onto material things and worries so they will not have time for God.  I think he tricks people into doing nothing at all more often than doing evil things.

Your job is to make a choice about which side to follow.  This is the most important choice of your life.  Your choice is eternal and can never be undone once your time on Earth is complete, so choose wisely.   

False Beliefs 

1. Sometimes I hear people say jokingly after they have said or done something they know instinctively to be wrong, "I'm probably going to Hell."  People always say this in a joking tone, but I wonder sometimes if they believe it's true.  It's kind of like they're saying, "I don't think I'm good enough to get into Heaven, Heaven is for good people and I'm clearly not good, so I'll settle for Hell."
2. Additionally there are those that believe no one goes to Hell and it doesn't actually exist but was invented by the Church as a scare tactic in order to control people.  
3. Others believe they must earn their way into Heaven by doing good works, if they don't do enough good works God sends them Hell.  

The Truth

None of the previous three beliefs are the truth and believing any one of them can cause you a lot of problems in your life.  I personally used to believe the third falsehood.  The truth about Heaven & Hell is this:

1. God never sends a soul to Hell, however a person may choose to go to Hell with their own free will.
2. Hell does exist, there are many Bible verses that reference it.  It was originally meant for Satan aka Lucifer and Angel who rejected God and all of the other Angles who rejected God as well and are now known as Demons. There are also many visionaries who have seen Hell and or Demons.  It's not a scare tactic it's simply the truth.
3. No person can ever earn their way into Heaven.  In the Old Testament of the Bible we are presented with the stories of many people, almost all of them have a very similar story; they are ordinary or particularly lowly people who God raises up to be great.  Despite this favor from God, they always end up sinning in some way and disappointing God. This tells us that no matter how hard we try or even how much favor from God we receive we will always fall short.  So God decided to get the job done Himself, He came down from Heaven as Jesus showed us how to live then took all of the punishment from our shortcomings and sins upon Himself and died on the cross so that we would not have to earn our way into Heaven.  Jesus opened the gates of Heaven and said come on in, He did the work part for us.

The Practical Reality   

What does all of this mean for all of us Prodigal sons and daughters who are living in the world today, with no thoughts about God, or avoiding God because we consider Him too demanding, or too strict, or too far away to care about us. 

You Have Been Given a Choice

If I asked you right now, "Do you want to go to Heaven?" What would you say?  I hope that most people would say "Yes."  Even the most lost soul finds it difficult to understand why anyone would willing choose eternal pain and punishment over eternal joy and freedom.  So if you said, "Yes, I want to go to Heaven," then I would say, "Prove it."  The reality is Jesus is asking each one of us a question, "Do you want to be with me or not?"  Heaven is being with Jesus, and all the perks that come along with living with the Creator of the Universe, and Hell is being without Jesus, and all of the torments that come along with being separated from Jesus and living with the Father of Lies. 

While it is true that we can say yes, with words, do our lives match that yes?  Consider a man who tells his wife, yes I love you, then stays out late into the night every night, and does everything he can to avoid seeing his wife.  Would you say this man actually loves his wife or not?  This is the same with God, if a man says, yes I want to go to Heaven, then does all he can do avoid God, by hanging out all night with his friends, and never even talking with God, does he actually want to go to Heaven?  It seems to me he enjoys being without God more than being with God, and so at the end of his life, Jesus will ask him, "Do you choose Heaven or Hell?" His whole life will be presented before him, and he will be given a big pie chart showing how much time he spent with God and how much time he spent avoiding God.  Whichever slice is bigger determines whether he said yes or no with his life, because his actions spoke louder than his words.  So despite it being unlikely that there is an actual pie chart, the idea is still the same, in order to prove that you want to go to Heaven, you must prove it with your life, aka time, talent, treasures, rather than words alone.

What Does my Yes Look Like?

So now that it's been established you have to choose Heaven and you have to prove you choose it based on the way you live what does that look like on a daily basis?

Jesus has given us all kinds of guidelines and advice about how to live.  We have the 10 commandments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, the beatitudes.  All of these are great ways to practice proving your yes, but let us remember, we have already established you can not earn your way into Heaven.  It can be a great temptation to run off and start saying 5 rosaries a day, signing up for the soup kitchen, dog shelter, and local senior center bingo night, but are you getting caught up in performing actions in order to earn your way into Heaven?  All while you are running yourself ragged? 

Jesus said, "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full." He also said, "I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you."

The best way to prove you want to go to Heaven is to live your life to the full and love God and all the people in your life.  This will look different for every individual but here are some guidelines:

1. Spend some time talking to God and listening to God aka praying.  Make sure to make this part of your daily schedule, make it a priority.  Then if God wants you to volunteer at the local soup kitchen or to say a rosary or two, He will let you know, by filling your heart with that desire. When this happens you will be doing the work God designed for you specifically, this will bring you joy.  It will also be done with a genuine desire to to be obedient to God's will because you know Him and have a relationship with Him rather than in an attempt to impress Him and try to earn your way into Heaven.
2. Trust God with everything.  In regards to how you see yourself in comparison to God, try to see yourself as a little child who must receive everything from God.  Trust that He will provide you with everything that is good for you and, if you allow Him, will take away all that is harmful to you.
3. Do you duty and do it for God.  Often when we are at work or at home the people around us do not recognize our efforts and we can become lax or cut corners because no one really notices anyway.  Remember God sees all you do, so don't work for the praise of others, do your best knowing that God sees your efforts and will reward you for ever smile offered to a stranger, and every mundane task done for Him.
4. Love all the people God has placed in your life especially the most annoying person you know!  Loving someone does not mean agreeing with everything they say, it means putting their needs above your own.  This is how we put love into action: When someone asks you to grab them a soda and you just got back from the break room, put their need for a soda above your need to finish that report.  When your child wont stop crying, put their need for comfort, encouragement, and attention, above your need for some peace and quite and a clean house. 
5. Lastly if you are a Catholic be obedient to all of the teachings of the Church.  Obedience to the Church is like a support you can rest against when sin an temptation come along.  If you find a particular teaching of the Church to be difficult to be obedient to then I encourage you to research that issue, and find out just where the teaching came from and why the Church teaches it.  This kind of questioning will increase your faith because the truth does not falter under the most severe questioning, it will stand firm.  

If you can start practicing these five things on a daily basis, God will be able to work in your life in a more significant way because you will be saying Yes to him with your life.  He can then revel to you His specific will and plan for you.

But You Don't Understand I'm a really Bad Person!

If you still think there is no hope for you, because up to this point in your life you've been saying "No, you do not want to go to Heaven" with your life never fear!

Jesus is the King of Mercy and as the King of Mercy he said to Saint Faustina, "The greater the sinner the greater right he has to my Mercy."  

Jesus died for you.  If you were the only person in the world, he still would have died for you.  It doesn't matter what you've done you can be made new.

In the past I was addicted to a particular sin.  I felt like a slave to this addiction and it seemed impossible to get free.  The only way this sin was overcome was when I admitted to God that I was unable to free myself from this sin, then allowed Him to free me from it.  God did not disappoint, and I was free from that addiction nearly instantly.  I am not free of all temptation to fall into that sin again, but God's grace has protected me from falling back into it.  All you must do is allow God to work in you.  He will take care of, but you have to give Him the time to do the work, by being open to Him.

If you're a Catholic go to sacrament of Confession, Jesus gives us great graces to overcome sin in this Sacrament and washes us clean of the sins we have already committed.

Remember while we still breath it's never too late and no sin is too big, all Prodigals can return to God our Father's open arms.  He is waiting for you today!  Shake off that apathy and doubt and be free in the Father's love!