God Archives - Page 10 of 11 - Shepherd of Faith

The fact that I am is amazing and wonderful. I can move about,

I can think, love, and choose. I can grow- in wisdom.

I am yours, God,Your beloved child.

Gifted as You see fit,

For sharing, For loving,

For bearing. In utter reliance on You;

In trust,Totally secure,

Totally loved, Totally yours.

written by Sr. Virginia Flagg, MM

I recently came across this poem, written by a MaryKnoll sister. Wow! Wow! Wow! Sooooo rich. I can go on for days meditating on this poem. Each phrase rich with meaning, steeped in Scripture and thought provoking possibility.

The fact that I am is amazing and wonderful – How did I get here? Why am I here? Where am I going? The answers lie in Psalm 139:For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts,God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I can move about, I can think, love and choose – we all know God created us with free will, our freedom and personal responsibility to choose between right and wrong. Lord knows it’s free will that gets us into trouble most of the time. It is through free will that we think before we choose and it is God’s hope that we choose love!

I can grow in wisdom – the more we grow in love, the more we are open to being led by the source of all wisdom, the Holy Spirit, our advocate and guide.

I am yours, God, Your beloved child – when I think of being a beloved child of God, I breathe a sigh of relief. Our almighty Father – watching out for me! Wow! Scripture says, unless you become like a little child you will not enter the kingdom of heaven – a reminder to us to remain humble and to not get sucked into “the ways of the world.”

Gifted as you see fit – we each have different gifts but are part of the same body, the mystical body of Christ. We all have something to contribute, have you figured out what that is for you?.

For sharing – we are encouraged to share our gifts and talents, to share our faith. Think about what this means for you and make a conscious effort to start sharing, if you haven’t done so already.

for loving – we are called to love our neighbor, the second greatest commandment. This is easier than you might think, all it requires is an open heart. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts – Psalm 95.

for bearing – we are expected to bear wrongs patiently. Tough one for sure. Are you up for the challenge? We are all works in progress. What a great feeling to witness the changes and growth of one’s own spirit. Journaling is a great way to keep track of your progress.

In utter reliance on you – with all the things we are called and expected to do in our humanity, we are aware of our weaknesses and limitations and we rely on God for the strength to persevere in all things, for NOTHING is impossible with God.

In trust, totally secure, totally loved, totally Yours – We are totally His when we put all our trust in Him. When we are totally His – through our surrender – we can rest secure in the knowledge that He loves us unconditionally. “He’s got this!” As St. Augustine once said: My soul is restless until it rests in You! God Bless you!

my boys I was thinking the other day about the things that I write and the advice that I give to friends and family when they’re going through tough times. I realized that what I offer may not always be well received because sometimes things don’t turn out the way we expect or the way we want. Then come the questions. I kept thinking, how can I help people understand the importance of trust in God and do I really practice it myself? Well, of course, when I opened my bible that day, it led me to the book of Job. Job 38:1-41 to be exact.

We are all familiar with the story of Job, a righteous man who endured suffering as a test of his faith and integrity. He questions God through it all. He cannot understand why he, a righteous man, has been subjected to such fate. How often do we experience things in life that lead us to question: Why is this happening? How do I handle this? What did I ever do to deserve this? We see God respond to Job, but He doesn’t answer his questions. Instead He responds to Job by basically asking: Who are you to question my plans? He accuses Job of being a know it all!. He admonishes Job and begins to question Job about all of creation. He challenges Job, in essence saying: come on, you who know so much, answer me this! Of course, Job doesn’t have all the answers and neither do we. That’s where our faith in Divine Providence comes in.

We are reminded through the book of Job that some of our experiences in life may be incomprehensible. Sometimes, the choices we make are the underlying cause of our experiences but many times we just can’t explain them nor can we understand them. Through Job, we are reminded that God is in control and our job is not to question but to trust in Divine Providence and “go with the flow”, accepting and surrendering to God’s will for our lives. Easier said than done, for sure and for anyone going through a difficult time at present, I believe I run the risk of seeming like I’m writing all fluff – trust this, surrender that. In light of that thought, let us pause for a moment to think about God’s creation and how often we actually DO “go with the flow” and trust when things are going well – so why should our difficult moments be any different?

The human body, for one, performs miraculously every single day and we don’t even have to think about it. From our breathing, to sight, to all the senses and beyond. Each moment we take a breath, God breathing in us, we trust that our next breath will come. We go with the flow. We trust that the sun will rise in the east every morning and set in the west every evening and because of this we wake in the morning and go to sleep in the evening. We go with the flow. I’ll leave the rest to you, you get the point. The God I believe in set this whole universe in motion – humans, the birds of the air, the fish in the sea, the stars in the sky…………He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent!

We may not always see how God is working in our lives, we may not always have the answers and we may never know why we suffer certain things. Despite the questions, if we remember to remain grateful for the myriad of things going well and come back to the idea of “God’s will be done”, He will grace us with the strength to get through ANYTHING. The bible says, it is in our weakness that we are made strong! Embrace the challenges of life knowing you will come out on the other side – better than before. But also remember you cannot do it alone, remember the famous quote, there but by the grace of God go I! We can’t just sit home and wish things will get better, we have to allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit. We have to show God that we are placing our trust in Him, that we need Him. He is waiting with open arms to love us and bless us with the graces only He can give but we have to be willing to receive them. Go to mass, sit with Jesus before the Blessed Sacrament, read, read, read. Learn about your faith, allow yourself to expand upon the knowledge given to you as a child. The result is absolute AWESOMENESS!

My dogs Foster and Mellow, both australian cattle dogs, recently showed me the type of trust we humans need to have in God and my love for them has helped illustrate for me, the love Our Father has for us. These guys wake up each and every morning trusting that we are going to feed them and give them to drink, trusting that they will have clean, comfy beds to sleep on and trusting in the love my husband and I have for them. Do you think they worry about anything? (unless they do something wrong, of course, and even then I wonder!) When they run off into the woods to play, they trust that we will either follow them or that we will still be there when they return. These guys live their lives to the full, knowing they will be taken care of and all they have to do is show love and loyalty. On the flip side, we love these pups beyond words, they bring us such joy, even when they mess up sometimes. When I view my relationship with God in comparison to my relationship with my “children”, I see how it’s possible that God can love us soooooooo much no matter what and I see just how much more I can and need to trust in Him. Although I love my dogs regardless, I’m so happy when they show me love and loyalty – so I am also reminded of how important it is to show God my love and loyalty. Do your own comparison, I’m sure you’ll agree! God bless you!