Heaven is for Real

I recently read Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo. It is the true story about a 3-year-old boy whose appendix burst and went undiagnosed for 5 days. He nearly died, and when he fully recovered he began telling his parents amazing things about “being in heaven.”

I don’t know that there is anything astonishingly “new” in this book, but I really did enjoy it a lot and highly recommend it. It’s just … joyful, I guess. As believers, we already know heaven is for real, but a book like this is just a really great reminder of the promise we have.

The book is a very easy read – one or two sittings – and I think it’ll uplift you. It sure did me!

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Salt and Light and Ordinary People

Mt 5:13-16

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”

This was our reading tonight at mass, and Father Jim had a great sermon to go with it.

He told about a couple who had been salt & light in his life – Mike and Katherine. He met them about 25 years ago in Dubuque, when he joined them in the ER. Their 9-year-old son and 10-year-old nephew had found a loaded rifle and tragically, their son was shot and killed in an awful accident.

Father Jim said that he walked with them through their darkest time and witnessed their trials and triumphs as they raised their other two children. He said they remained fast friends, and when Father Jim would encounter other parents suffering a tragic loss of a child, he would call on Mike and Katherine. They were always willing to make a call, send a letter, share their experience.

Father Jim said that he never once heard them speak ill of their nephew or his family; he never heard them lament the unfairness of life, nor speak in anger about God.

And at Mike’s funeral a few weeks ago, over a thousand people attended to support Katherine.

Father said Mike was a plumber … he and Katherine were salt and light in his life. And they were “ordinary people.”

Who are the salt and light in your life?

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Heartbroken

Received news two days ago that LucasTheAngel has died.

I first met Lucas online over 10 years ago, when the internet was new to me and I discovered messageboards. I came across the Left Behind boards, associated with those awful rapture books. But I met a lot of really great people there … Christians of such varying beliefs I had no idea.  Christians who challenged everything I believed, who built me up, who have been a support group for each other as we’ve conversed over the years.

Lucas – his real name is Dale – had an offbeat sense of humor that I didn’t always “get.” But he was one of my favorite people to read – he looked at things with a unique eye and I really enjoyed his posts.

He met Penny from the boards – AlkaliPrincess, a college professor of chemistry. I’ve always liked her; she is quiet, but insightful, and always so very sweet.

And Dale got brain cancer.  Last summer they planned their wedding … this December Penny is planning his funeral.  I am utterly heartbroken for her; he was her best friend and feels so very alone.

Today’s reading made me think of her, and the hope that we hold onto:

4 Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. Psalm 126

Dale and Penny, August 2010

With the General Lee he restored

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Pondering Words

Just two unrelated thoughts running around in my head …

Universal Salvation
From today’s reading, another passage of note that does not support universal salvation: “Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed — without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1)

The words we speak
For several weeks I’ve been thinking about our words. The Bible is filled with caution about taking care what we say, guarding our tongues, etc.

When Bruce, Tom, Suzie and I visited my aunt and uncle after the auction that sold dad’s farmland, my aunt expressed her hurt and anger that mom had decided to sell the land. I know she just had been stewing and needed to vent a little and we tried to just listen and be supportive.

But discussing it among ourselves later, Stacy made a really great observation. She pointed out that right after dad died, she and Zeke gave serious consideration to moving to the farm.  But my aunt & uncle were extremely discouraging to them about the idea – “We don’t want horses here;” “You’ll have to put in your own well, we aren’t sharing it any more;” and word got back to them that my uncle had proclaimed “Zeke will never farm MY land.”

Now I know it’s all water under the bridge. At the time I was pretty upset by it all, but by now I’d completely forgotten it until Stacy mentioned it. And I certainly won’t ever bring it up to my aunt & uncle.

But it really got me thinking about our words and how far they carry.  If their words eight years ago had encouraged Stacy & Zeke (or at least had not been discouraging) … how would things be different today? Mom would certainly still own that farmland; and my aunt wouldn’t be so lonely on the farm as she’s expressed many times.

I don’t know if they would have moved down there anyway, but really that is all beside the point of my PONdering.  I guess the entire incident has just driven home to me how important it is for us to take care with our words; to speak words that build up instead of tear down; and to recall that we’re all terribly human and every story has two sides.

Lord, I am sincerely sorry for every word I’ve ever spoken that has hurt someone else; that has discouraged them; that was spoken or written without your Spirit guiding it.  Please forgive me; please heal the person I’ve hurt or offended; please give me a forgiving heart when people say or do things that hurt me. And when I’m upset by something someone else does, please bring to mind my own words and actions that may have precipitated or contributed to those events – I might have only myself to blame, afterall.  You know it all, see it all, understand it all … please, because of your great mercy, simply help me to guard my speech and forgive others.

In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.



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Receive a rich welcome

2 Peter 1 5-10

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,  and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We are called to make an effort … to “add to” faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love.

It seems to me that just as there is a “slippery slope” when we rationalize a “small sin” in our minds, and it quickly roars out of control in our lives – there is also a natural compounding of “good” when we make an effort.

And it all starts with God.

Where does faith come from? From God. It is a gift from Him, and that is first on the list.

“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

How do we get the gift?  “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”  (Romans 10:17)

It is my experience that we can simply pray for God to increase our faith. And honestly … what prayer would He more like to answer?  He responds in amazing and surprising ways when we pray for more faith in Him.

All of the rest naturally flow from faith.  I think we do need to be conscious of making the effort though; the more we pray, the more we try, the more we practice, the more we are filled and fed and all good things are poured out.

It all comes back to the nature of free will that He has given us, in my mind … we choose and what we choose and pursue, we are given.

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Joyful in Affliction

I really liked this passage from today’s readings.  I heard a sermon not long ago that spoke about how “discipline” is not necessarily punishment for wrongdoing.  Rather, “discipline” can be in the sense that an athlete must be very disciplined to perform at her best, or a musician must be disciplined in his art.  I think that is perfect for this passage…

 

Hebrews 12

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

God Disciplines His Children
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little

while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,”[c] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

I especially love 12:1: For the joy set before him he endured the cross

We aren’t always “happy” in this life … it isn’t a bowl of cherries just because we are Christ’s. It’s tough, and there is evil and pain and suffering and disaster; being Christian does not shelter you from those things.

But there is a joy, and a promise, and a hope … these are found in Jesus. They ARE Jesus.

I think that’s why I love the story of Maximilian Kolbe who certainly couldn’t have been “happy” as he died of starvation in a Nazi concentration camp … yet the entire camp heard his joy as he sang praises and led others in prayer.

I am getting there … I am learning how Paul could be joyful in affliction and thank God for his trials. I understand it in my head now; that’s a good step.  Through discipline, I will learn it and genuinely become truly joyful in the deepest and most authentic sense of the word.

 

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I will call this to mind

Today’s Readings
LAMENTATIONS 3:1-66 | HEBREWS 1:1-14 | PSALM 102:1-28 | PROVERBS 26:21-22

I think this passage is probably the “one” in the entire Bible that speaks to me the most, has upheld me the most, has encouraged and comforted and guided me the most.  I’ve gone to it again and again, and have shared it over and over with others who are suffering.

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

I find this passage intriguing …

Hebrews 1
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

 

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He Who Dwells in the Shelter of the Most High

Today’s Readings
JEREMIAH 39:1-41:18 | 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-18 | PSALM 90:1-91:16 | PROVERBS 26:1-2

This is such a beautiful, beautiful psalm.  This NIV version isn’t my favorite, but still …

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say  of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-

10 then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

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Dark Night of the Soul

Dark Night of the Soul … I have experienced this valley along with its fear, frustration, and wrestling with God like Jacob wrestled with the angel.  It was not as long nor as dark as some people experience it, but I am so grateful, now, for that time of trial and to God for carrying me through.

I’ve read two really great articles about the Dark Night of the Soul, and want to post them here.

The first is from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was —John 11:6

Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).

A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.

This blog post really spoke to my heart about the Dark Night of the Soul as well.

“It is so dark in life. There seems to be no God at all.” I hear similar words echoed over and over in the letters people write me from all over the world. It might be experienced missionaries who have served for 20 years in a place, only to be disillusioned by their seeming lack of fruit. It might be a young guy struggling through family or spiritual wounds in life -or a young lady desperately trying to discern a vocation in darkness. But spiritual struggle comes to all of us sooner or later. Eventually when God sees that we are mature enough for unselfish love -pure love -real, sacrificial love -He hides His Face so that we can learn to search, to desire, to let go of all and everyone else in our quest to find Him and make Him our heart’s first love. But in the midst of such darkness within the soul, when God hides His Fatherly Face, how are we supposed to react in our lives?

God does not want us to give in to the darkness, saying ‘Woe is me!’ Instead He wants us to look at His Faithful Love through the eyes of faith and hope -believing when we cannot see and hoping when we cannot hear -He wants us to rejoice in trust. I think that the greatest weapon God gives us in the midst of deep darkness within the soul is the gift and virtue of Joy. No, maybe we don’t feel ‘happy’ in our emotions in such a state. But He wants us to allow the Holy Spirit (Who we cannot know by our senses, but Who we invite to live quietly within us) to birth forth His spiritual gift of Joy. And as He offers this gift to us, we have to use our little wills to go along with Him.

Joy is an ‘act of Charity’ as St. Thomas Aquinas would explain. And because Love is an act of the will and Joy comes from Love, then being joyful is something we can simply decide to live on earth, even in the Cross -especially on the Cross, the Epicenter of Love.

Did the people dying with St. Maximillian Kolbe feel happy and that is why they sang as they waited for death in Auschwitz? Or did they look in faith toward heaven and trust in the hope of the conquering Love of God and simply through this faith and hope decide to rejoice as they accepted the pains life dealt them? I think the latter is true. Although sometimes God gives miraculous graces to feel joy in the midst of suffering, most people are called to rejoice with Jesus on the Cross despite their contradicting feelings. And this decision to rejoice in trustful love is what makes Joy a powerful weapon. It says to God, ‘I will forget myself and how I feel inside, and I will trust You and love others anyway.’ It says to satan, ‘No matter how you tempt me to despair, I’m happy because I’m God’s.’ St. John Bosco used to say, “The devil is afraid of cheerful people.”

My brother Mike taught me early on during my time at Notre Dame (when I struggled never finding my place, not really having many real friends) that Joy is a decision. I needed to wake up every morning and decide to be happy and joyful. And as a Christian it is easy to do when we remember the Love of God that is always with us. “For what can separate us from the Love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?… For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35,38-39)

In the midst of great darkness the act of Joy can become a great light to others. In the midst of the greatest interior struggles in my life, I have learned to smile at Jesus and yell ‘alleluia’ even out loud -just to make the devil mad and to confirm in my own will that I want what Jesus wants -period -and I trust Him. The ‘saints of joy’ are my examples in this -for no matter how they suffered, they found a way to bring people joy because they loved. And when you walk into a room where there is a person who is sad or needing love -and you feel squashed within your own heart -but you decide to be joyful and force yourself to smile and speak kind words to them, somehow the Joy gives you a glimpse of the Light in your own heart as well. For Joy comes from the Holy Spirit -and when we are joyful, we are tapping into His presence singing within our hearts.

So, fight with Joy. The next time you feel steeped in depression in life or darkness in the spiritual life -look at God, wink at Him (even though you may not be able to ‘see Him’ clearly but through faith) and smile. Try to force yourself to be a happy person -it is a beautiful way of saying ‘Fiat, Father -Fiat, Jesus -I decide to love and trust in You.’

And who knows, you just might make someone else happy along the way.

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Whom Have I in Heaven But You?

Today’s Readings
ISAIAH 62:6-65:25 | PHILIPPIANS 2:19-3:3 | PSALM 73:1-28 | PROVERBS 24:13-14

Yesterday’s readings troubled me deeply. As I drove to work I was praying, asking the LORD what He would have me do; asking how I could serve Him on behalf of those being led to slaughter; what I could really do.

And I know the answer …  pray.

It brings to mind His message to me when I was distressed about my children …

“Focus. Pray.”

I believe He has placed me in prayer bootcamp for the last many years; He has brought people into my life who are wonderful pray-ers to inspire me and to teach me; He led me to a Bible Study that taught me more; He nudged me to take part in weekly adoration where my prayer life has just soared; He has led me to a variety of novenas to pray faithfully.

I don’t know “what” He does with prayers; I don’t know why He desires them. He certainly doesn’t need “me” or my filthy rags … but He does desire them and I have come to believe they are powerful beyond our understanding.

And so I am committed to praying. Praying for the salvation of my beloved children; praying for the lives of the unborn; praying for their mothers and fathers.

God may also lead me to do some work related to pro-life; I will continue to seek and pray for guidance. But I know at the very core of what He is asking is …

Focus. Pray.

Earnestly, tirelessly, persevere in prayer.

6You who call on the LORD,
give yourselves no rest,
7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth. (Isaiah 62)

From today’s readings, I’ve always loved this passage:

24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD.(Isaiah 65)

This is something I PONder often … if I were ever to turn away from God; where would I turn? Seriously?!!

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. (Psalm 73)

amen, Amen AMEN.

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