The moment

Keep me in the moment.  

Trust can only grow by trusting.  This is  done by choosing to do what we believe is God’s Will; while we patiently endure the cross of self-doubt.

Do you want to ‘understand..by means of Divine Wisdom?’  Think before you answer.  If you receive God’s wisdom, you will perceive how feeble is tour way of loving.  Then, you will have to make a decision either to act upon what God has revealed to you or to ignore God’s invitation.”

Keep me in the moment. How will we learn to trust in Jesus if we are always looking to tomorrow or back at yesterday? Jesus taught, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own” Matthew 6:34

Trust can only grow by trusting. We need to believe that God has our best interests in mind and simply trust Him to guide us through the challenges of the day. We must also trust His Mercy to cover yesterday and drop our guilt and shame. We can’t correct or reverse the mistakes or even sins we committed In our past. They are done. But, the enemy will keep your eyes looking back and feeling the guilt. Let the past go and trust the future to God.

I remember some of the moments these truths were brought home to me by God.

I’ve had a form of theology that I called my ‘Christmas Light’ theology. This is that I can clearly look back at moments of my life and clearly see God was present. I didn’t recognize Him in that moment but now I look back and He is clearly there.

Well, several years ago, I was asked to lead a men’s Emmaus retreat. After I had accepted this daunting task, my first prayer was to see God in the moment. I prayed, “Lord, I know you’ve always covered me. In hindsight, I can see clearly every moment which you protected me. I don’t want to see You in hindsight anymore. I ask You, Lord to let me see You working now, in front of me.”

The next morning, I held the door for a woman to enter the building. And, I clearly ‘saw’ Jesus walk through. Later, as I walked to daily Mass, I saw a homeless man on the side of the street. As I walked past, I heard in my heart, “look again”. I turned and ‘saw’ Jesus sitting in the side of the street, not the homeless man. I walked back to him. Ever since that evening’s prayer, I’ve tried to see Jesus in the world around me as He acts actively in my life. I know many times, I still miss seeing Him but often, I see Him in subtle ways.

I sat one day lamenting of a certain sin that seemed to have a hold on me. I felt strong guilt for having committed this sin so many times, for years. No matter what I did I always seemed to give into this sin. I would go back to confession and feel the shame of repeatedly asking for mercy for the same sin. I would confess it and receive Jesus’ mercy but lingering in the back of my mind was always Satan’s whisper that I would just fall again. That I’m not worthy of mercy if I can’t overcome this sin. Then, one day in an unplanned visit to the Sacrament of Confession, I told the priest of my shame for having to confess this sin again. He was a holy man, an open vessel of God and His Mercy. He told me two things that rocked me. First, “praise God for that thorn. This sin is bringing glory to God”. What?!? That makes no sense, how can sin glorify God? He said, “every time we confess our sins, we trust God to forgive them and we glorify His Divine Mercy”. Wow! And, second, God doesn’t look at what we’ve done or how we’ve fallen. He looks at how we got back up. He doesn’t count the falls, but, counts the times we got back to our feet. As long as the times we’ve stood back up is 1 more than the times we’ve fallen; we win!

We are on the Road of Faith. That road isn’t smooth or easy. But, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus is always walking alongside. He is always teaching and guiding us. His desire is that we turn around and run back from our fear to His waiting arms.

Last story I’ll tell today. Sitting outside a hospital room shortly after a condition was called on my daughter, a woman tried to console me. She said, ‘be strong, God gives us the grace for the day. He doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” God spoke within my heart and I realized immediately this wasn’t true.

God doesn’t give us the grace for today, He gives us the grace for this moment, this breath – nothing more. He also without a doubt gives us more than we can handle. He doesn’t want us to be able to handle things, He wants us to learn to trust Him and grow stronger. To grow stronger, one must push themself beyond their limitations. God doesn’t give us more than we can handle with Him. And, with God, we can handle anything. Trust can only grow by trusting.  

Pray to see Jesus acting in your life today.