Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Suffering with Christ

Our country elected a new president tonight and although history has been made and "change" is inevitable I am so disheartened by the news. The president that has been chosen does not see the true value of life. How sad it is that we live in the greatest country in the world who founded itself on God's love, and now we have steered so far from His love that we can ignore this painstakingly brunt force of evil. When will people see how much harm we are doing when we say it's okay to make the other "issues" more important than life. Life which was created to be good. Everything He creates is good! He doesn't make mistakes and with that being said, He is allowing this. He must have reasons that I cannot understand and it is my faith that is helping me to be at peace with what He has allowed to happen. All the prayers, sacrifices and fasting that we all did (and continue to do) were all still heard and answered, just maybe not the answer we wanted it to be.

We are all called to suffer with Christ. How many of us are under attack when we finally say yes to something He has called us to for awhile. He never gives up on us. What we have to realize is that His plan is not something we are to understand. We are all called to give Him our "self-abandonment." I have finished reading a book (finally) that a friend gave me called Saints and Other Powerful Women in the Church by Bob and Penny Lord. What I realized about each of these women is that they all had "ideas" of what God's plan was for their lives and they fought hard for it, but it truly wasn't part of His plan at all. Some of them even needed clear signs sent straight from Heaven to realize that the self abandonment was what they needed. St. Therese, to whom I credit this blog (among other beautiful gifts in my life) received the message from a baby Jesus on a boat in her room after meeting with the Pope. She fought so long and hard to join the monastary, but it wasn't part of His plan until she realized the self abandonment.

Once her Spiritual Director told her "I forbid you in the the name of God to quesiton your state of soul. The Devil is laughting heartily. I protest against this willful distrust. Believe, come what may, that God loves you!" Please know that your struggling is just a way for you to join in this self abandonment. To join fully with Him on the cross. Know that if He has called you to this journey then He will get you through it and if you just keep in mind that it might not be for us to understand, yet, it will bring us closer to joining Him fully in Heaven. Find courage in all that He asks of us, because there is a reason. Try not to get in His way, but let Him be your yoke and you just follow along peacefully. It's amazing what can be done when we step out of the way and let Him lead us.

Please continue to pray for our country and our new president so that he may come to fully appreciate the value of life and lead our country to become a civilization of life and not death!

3 comments:

Janet said...

I am awestruck by your words. Thank you.

JulieC said...

They're not mine.:)

Suzi said...

Wonderful insights, Julie! I'm glad you were able to finish the book in God's timing. Your message of suffering and abandonment in order to draw closer to Christ is such an important one to learn and live, along with all the saints who've inspired us in this way. We have some battles ahead of us, but we can do all things through Christ, who stengthens us!