3 Words

It’s the shortest verse in the Bible.

John 11:35: “And Jesus wept.”

In three words, we have the realest, most human moment of our divine savior.

Jesus cried.
His friend died, and he was moved to full-out tears.
He raised him from the dead a mere 8 verses later, but in that split-second, he mourned his friend.

And what a savior we have! Not only unafraid of crying (what a man!), but also so moved with love that even though He knew that in a minute He would go ahead and fix everything, He still FELT.

How beautiful.

Be Still and Know.

On Friday when I went in for my Adoration time I was kind of disappointed.  I went to go sit and be with Jesus for a Friday night.  Why is it so hard to focus?  So hard to calm our minds down to just stop for once and listen and be present.  To stop thinking about what happened, what will happen and just be aware of what is happening right now, right here.  This is something that I think a lot of people would struggle with more if they took the time to sit still for a few moments.

If anything comes from this Lenten season, I hope that I teach myself to be more aware of God’s presence in my daily life again.  I have done this a lot lately as well: looking back to what I used to be or where I was and setting that as a standard.  While I believe that I did have a more acute sense of the Divine in my everyday life before, maybe striving for what was isn’t the answer.  Maybe it’s to continue forward.  We can’t go backwards, only forward.  But I would still like to invite God to be a bigger part of my everyday.  I long to hear His voice in the breezes and in the trees.  Of course not literally to hear voices, then I would be frightened that I had somehow gone insane.  But to just be still and know that He is God and He is there.  It’s so easy to forget Him.  With deadlines, places I need to be, the time moving on the clock, this to pick up and that to drop off.  So much clutter in my mind that I forget His presence.

If anything, I feel secure in knowing that I long for the Lord.  But at the same time, sometimes I feel as if I’ve invited Him to my life as a guest and that I’ve got the radio blaring, the TV going, a band and all these other things going on and want to try and have an indepth, deep conversation.  That kind of environment isn’t all that supportive of conversation.  It’s why we invite people for coffee to converse, or invite them to dinner to get to know them.  The same should be for the Lord.  In the quiet, calmer moments of life.  To really be able to converse.  Not just telling Him everything – though that’s important.  But somewhere, sometime doing some listening.  Afterall, He is the End All and Be All. The End, The Beginning.  The Alpha and Omega.  So what He has to say is pretty dang important.

Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting..

Well, friends we’re officially in Lent. After doning ashes on our foreheads, we’re ready for40 days of fasting and praying. I’ve read a couple of really great reflections on Lent and wanted to point you to this one. Mostly because that’s part of my Lenten promise – to give up Fridays to spend in meditation and in Eucharistic Adoration.  I don’t want anyone to be confused in that I am saying to give up people completely but for a time it’s good to separate from the norm and take time to be present with God.

“Date night with Jesus” in a way to as Jon said, “cut back on human-generated discourse in the desire to make space for Divine presence.”  I know I need to make more space for the Divine in my life.  It’s so easy to fall into a pattern and completely forget about God and His Presence in our lives.  So that’s why I chose to give up one night for a couple of hours to sit in God’s Presence.

A reflection that I read last night said to pick just one thing, one fault, one fear or one behavior that you want to change and choose an action that will help you overcome this one thing. What is your fast this Lent?