“My God, I see the radiance of eternal dawn. My whole soul bounds toward You, O Lord; nothing any longer holds me back, nothing ties me to earth.” Divine Mercy in My Soul # 1365
The pinnacle of our relationship with God includes being stripped of every other earthly tie so that nothing holds us back from running toward God with great passion and purpose. We must be freed of every attachment in this life so that our one attachment is God and His holy Will.
Dear friends of ours (Patrick and Joy) prophesied to my wife and I that God wanted to remove everything from our life that was between He and us. We had barely at this time talked about the RV life, and that was planned at best as being years ahead. I was heavily involved as ministry head of our Emmaus ministry as well as many other things in our church. Emmaus was very important to me.
We fully and immediately surrendered our life to God, so that we may center on Him, whatever that meant. And, God wondrously moved things around even making seemingly impossible things happen, to remove aspects of our lives that we had, unknowingly, put between us and God. Even those great, God glorifying things like Emmaus.
Despite not knowing God’s plan, Connie and I responded with an immediate yes to God and surrendered to His plans for our life. God quickly moved ahead. Within a few months, we had sold our big ‘dream’ home (far more quickly than planned and with all furnishing included). Then, we were on pilgrimage to Poland, again affirmed our trust in God’s plan.
I had felt so focused upon and, dare I say, important to Emmaus at this time. I was ministry head, playing guitar (well, learning), doing admin, coordination with retreat center and pastor, and about everything else I could do – all while teaching others these tasks. Participating in a retreat prep meeting with the team, I sat in prayer with God. It was then that He spoke to me clearly as if right beside me. I heard God say, “time to move on, you aren’t needed here now.” This was such a warm and heartfelt message. That retreat was my last.
Then, covid struck. And, in the forced quarantine, we found a retreat to center our lives upon God. This is when I found my joy in the early morning time alone with God in His Word and in my journal and this blog (www.theroadoffaith.net).
Coming on four years of full-time travel in our RV and nearly six since that prophetic message, we are closer to God than ever. Things like just going to Mass has become simpler, with no preconceived expectations, allowing us to focus on Mass and the Eucharist.
What do you love in this world? What is it that you are attached to? Think about your greatest earthly loves. Hopefully these loves include family members and others whom God has put in your life. But, outside of that, look at why you do what you do. For me, I realized Emmaus was more than what I had thought. Vainglory started to creep in – so God taught me humility and I stepped down and away.
Life has become more simple as we come closer to being “just the five of us” – the Trinity, Connie and I. All I have to do when I wake each morning is trust in God, everything else takes care of itself. Now, we look into the future with wonder. Excited to see what God had in store for our Road of Faith.