Grace & Efren

If there’s time to complain, there’s time to be grateful.

If there’s time to read up on gossip, there’s time to honor one another.

If there’s time to party, there’s time to pray.

If there’s time to for Facebook, there’s time to read something uplifting.

If there’s time to listen to music, there’s time to be silent.

If there’s time to blog, there’s time to spend with loved ones.

Note To Self: There is time. Always. Spend it wisely.

To be quite honest, this intense relationship I have with God was never in my life plan.

I think a lot of crap happens along the way of trying to make your dreams real. But luckily I was paying attention to see that God was happening during it all.

Thank God for change. It’s my reminder that I’m moving forward.

I always get overwhelmed how fast God is to forgive me, but how slow I am in asking for forgiveness.

I spend days and months of trying to cope with guilt, regret and worry. I’m always taken back when I go to confession and in an instant, I’m reminded that God and I are still cool. That I’m still loved, and that laundry list of not so good things I just read off, is put in his shredder immediately.

He definitely doesn’t waste His time with me. With all my dilly-dallying, I pray I don’t waste anymore time of His.

But he passed through the midst of them and went away

Luke 4:30

This the last line of the gospel for today. To sum up everything before this, Jesus basically walked into town and pissed the town off by essentially saying “change your unhealthy ways.” He even talked about their heritage and how they got screwed because they didn’t change. They then chased him to the edge of town which happened to be a cliff, wanting to chuck him down it. Then… ‘he passed through the midst of them and went away.’ Quite harsh.

Being told that you suck is never an easy thing to take. When someone with an outside perspective lays out the truth, I can’t help but get defensive. After all, they’re talking directly about me, my thinking, and my rationale for doing things (or not doing things). I really do want to throw this truth-telling person off a cliff for cracking my ego.

But I have to realize that truth will always find a way. No matter if I throw this person off a cliff or not, it doesn’t change the fact that this person was right. So truth, like Jesus in this gospel, passed through the crowd and went away. You can’t kill the truth, or worse yet, hide it. Especially after it’s been said. But it will eventually be back somehow, and it may not be so nice when it does.

So when truth comes back into town, I gotta put the armour on my skin, and off of my heart, and not the other way around.

Self-Revelation as a Father No. 19084:

What seems to be a little ripple now, becomes a tsunami of hurt and misunderstanding later on.
Be present, initiate , and be intentional with my time, my actions and my love.

It seems that Japan is the latest trend.

Maybe I need the major news coverage to wake me up, or have #japan hashtags flooding my twitter feed to take notice, or Facebook status updates to motivate me to do something. All this chaos in Japan got me reflecting about, past disasters that have just recently happened. Does anyone remember what happened to Christchurch, New Zealand? Does anyone even talk about Haiti anymore?

I took it a little further and started think about the what’s happening in Darfur, and various parts of Africa. Or hunger in all parts of the world. These ongoing tragedies without the headline buzz.

I think I get overwhelmed, with all this stuff, but I’m reminded that although my heart beats with compassion to help all, I can only be really effective if I can focus that compassion and translate that into helping one person effectively. I’m sure if I can do that consistently, I can begin helping another, and then another, and then another…

[highlight]If you’re reading this in an Imported Note in FACEBOOK, click here to watch the video.[/highlight]

“Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”

Matthew 20:22

This is one of the few times in the Gospel were Jesus was talking behind code a little bit. He was essentially saying “I’m about to fulfill my purpose, and it’s not going to be easy. Can you do what I’m about to do?”

It’s a reminder for me that nothing good ever comes without sacrifice, hard work or dedication.  I’ve observed that if good things do somehow come in an easy manner, they’re easily taken for granted and easily lost.

So grind it out baby. Do work. This happiness thing is a slow, steady process not some lottery winning.

It’s interesting that during Lent, it seems that we get days off. Sundays are those days where we don’t have to fast and abstain. Now some would take this day and simply pig out and gorge on whatever they’ve been fasting for 6 days. But I think, God in His goodness has a greater purpose for it.

Simply put, I think Sunday is that day where I can have whatever I want, but being more mindful that I’m in the presence of God. Do I gorge and indulge after 6 days of fasting and abstaining, or can these 6 days show that I have self-control in front of God when it comes to these things.

A huge point of fasting, is really detaching ourselves from worldly things in order to fill that space with God. Sunday puts us face to face with these worldly things, and we’re given a chance to show God one of two things:

1) That these things we fast somehow have a control over us

2) We have control over these things

So enjoy your Sunday! Not because you don’t have to fast, but because God is present and you have a chance to show Him you’ve got a handle on things.

My last entry sparked what I’ll be writing typing about for this one, and it was further fueled by  a reflection from another blogging veteran who has taken the Lenten Challenge alongside me. It’s been 7 consecutive days (8 with a day of rest) and this Lenten reflection challenge has been nothing less than enriching. Taking the time to think, pray, analyze and finally output how God is leading my thoughts has been a consistent exercise of my spiritual mojo. And what’s better  is that I have a whole bunch of other bloggers pushing me further with their own commitment for this challenge, and more so with their thoughts and reflections.

So excited by all of this, it got me wondering and asking “Where does this all go? Why are we doing this in the first place?”

I think this whole challenge is bringing me back to where He makes all things new, which is the Cross.

The Cross to me really represents (among other things) a place of God’s honesty. Jesus at the conclusion of His human life on earth held nothing back to us. His time on earth brought equilibrium to what was happening during those times. He flipped everything onto it’s head, and if anyone was paying attention, it made everyone honest. He made everyone question themselves. He uplifted the lowly and forgotten and humbled those who thought they were more than what they really were. He put everyone around Him on even ground when it came to God’s love.

His presence, words and miracles were able to do all of that, but it was the final act where God showed us His most honest self. After being beaten and tortured, He still carried the cross to where he would be put humiliatingly on display for all to see. Scarred, bloodied, wounded and naked. There really was nothing left to hide here.  This was as honest as Jesus was going to get.

Jesus being both fully God and fully human, he showed us his weakness through this act. I mean, being God and being human is like comparing the strength of steel to the strength of a piece of paper. Jesus showed us the weakest part of Him. But… if it wasn’t for this weakness, He never would have fulfilled His purpose. Jesus could not have shown us How to love, and God the Father could not show us the lengths He would go to know that we are loved.

Maybe you’ve heard it all before about God using our weakness to achieve His plan in our lives, and probably in the lives of others. But it all starts with honesty. Accepting who I am, and who I’m not. Admitting my faults and flaws. Coming to terms with my own pain that I inflict on myself or inflicted on me by others. I need to create an equilibrium of how I view myself. When that’s established, then I’m on even ground to really start living.

I think honesty is that place where my true self can CROSS paths with God’s grace. Who knows what can happen from there, but I’m sure it will be nothing less than a purposeful life.

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

Psalm 86:11

I think the hard part of following God, or trying to “walk in truth,” is that I really don’t want to follow. At least that’s what my actions say sometimes. Truth be told, I chose this path to follow God with my own free will (what a great gift by the way). But for the most part I don’t get to dictate where the path travels through. I really only have control of  3 main things.

1. To stay on the path or not stay on the path.
2. How I react when this path gets challenging.
3. The pace I choose to go.

So essentially I choose to walk the path. I choose to keep going when it begins to hurt (and hurt it will), and I choose to move forward.

Maybe through these things, I’m learning bit by bit how to walk in that truth stated in the passage. By choosing to be on the path, I learn how to be decisive, and deliberate with my faith. By pushing through adversity, I learn humility, patience, forgiveness and wisdom (just to name a few). By constantly moving forward, I learn faithfulness and discipline.

I get it now. In order to be taught His way, we have to walk in His Truth. It’s not something you do in some special order, but it’s one and the same. There really isn’t any prerequisite to walk in His Truth; if anything we just have to take the first step, and try to gain momentum.