Choice for Good or Evil

There is always a turning point to realize more about Christ’s love for us, or to turn away and shut a door to the light.  There are several questions that come up from that line of thinking. One is the question of how to choose the right when you are faced with an easy wrong, and another is what to do when you have chosen wrongly.

Luckily, if you choose wrongly, I can assure you that your head will not blow up like the guy in “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.”  I love that movie!  If you choose correctly, nothing may happen also.

These type of choices have much to do with the spirit within.  The right choice can bolster your soul and person. The right choice can be reflected in your next right choice.  The right choice may only show in that moment after a year that you have been praying for courage or some grace which God has revealed to you.  The spirit within will continue is longing for truth in Christ, if a right choice is made.  The spirit within will be guided by a greater force and lead you to and through hardship or joy.

When the wrong choice is made, or let’s call it a missed opportunity to love, there is sense of loss within the spirit.  It depends on how long it has been since you allowed the spirit to guide you in your choices. All persons have a faith, whether they know it or not.  For some of the faithful, there is a feeling of loss when a sin is commited.  A wrong is not necessarily a sin, but the choices I am thinking of either lead to sin or are already themselves a choice to sin or not.

But you don’t know that you may have sinned in the moment.  It may be a choice for laziness, greed or desire.  It may be a choice made with a clouded view from something in the present or the past environment.  Either way, a loss of grace can take place if the choice made is one that is no good for the soul.

I think we all have experience with both choices.  You can go about your easy weekdays and poof, here comes an opportunity to make a choice right out of the blue.  It can be as simple as helping someone and showing charity without judgment to not falling in to your deepest set of sins.  How do you choose the right one when the urge and habit are to choose the greater evil.

It takes an immense amount of strength that humanity just doesn’t have.  That’s right, we can’t choose the right. Not you or me, with out the help of the Holy Spirit.  There is plenty of good to go around though. On a side note, one can say what about the people who haven’t heard of Christ, who chose good during their life?  On a side answer to that, super for them, but they still will meet Jesus Christ and have to choose Him, which will fulfill and complete the actions and purpose of their lives.

The fact is, those people are living without a full cup of the Holy Spirit.  We all have good within us because we were made in the image of God and God is all good.  But we are talking about mainly, the daily battle against evil that we all face in our choices to love God and obey His commandments or not.

If we choose wrongly, and our heads don't blow up, then the next choice is to pray and ask for the guidance for the right choice. If we choose rightly, and our heads still don’t blow up and we don’t get to heal a bullet wound or whatever, then the next choice is to pray and ask for the guidance for the next right choice.  That’s what a relationship with God is, a choice.  A full cup can only be full if you continue to fill it up.

Teachers' Trees

The trees for the forest is something I just don't get unless I think about actual people.  I mean, are you supposed to think about the trees or the forest?? I get it for people though, because I am a school teacher and education is changing every day, for the trees or the forest, I don't know.

It frustrates me greatly that there is such a great need for each individual child to experience good and kindness during their school day, while also experiencing knowledge and discipline.

The teacher/first responder/pseudo-parent/special needs coordinator is tasked with an insurmountable burden when there are many children put in a room that also want good, kindness, knowledge and discipline.  How is one to do all these things and get them to pass tests also?

Over my ten years of education experience I have found it is most important to love.  A school classroom is extremely like the real world.  Extremely.  There is so much that goes on under the exterior artifices that exist in the classroom.  Between the people in charge of the teacher and the parents in charge of the child, the teacher is pulled in many directions that cannot be handled all at once. 

When I think of the forest, there is a lot of stuff you don't see that is making it all work.  Like the fungus decomposer and the food web replanting seeds and nurturing the Earth.  When I think of the tree, I see an outer shell with many inner shells that have been effected by past events that will determine its success.

It is hard, but I do believe it's Christ's work. Hug a tree. Hug a child.

The Spirit Diet

Had a nice visit and conversation with Our Lord at the beach a couple of weekends ago. He said to write, he said to chill out more.

One of the things he also listened to me complain about is that I am frustrated to have such an annoyingly strong conscience but such a weak will.

All of the religious types say to form the will with good reading and all that.  Of course I do and have done.  But the frustration lies in knowing that faith grows in the leaps and bounds of Christ.  There is no pill for it or faith diet, or even any Spirit surgery.

You just have to keep on and do it.  Pray that is.  Have those continuous tough conversations even if it totally sucks.

I don't like that word, but it reverberates my point to the heart.  Sometimes things are yucky.  Faith isn't, prayer isn't, but the obedience that Christ calls us too is.  His obedience was to be crucified, so mine, as one who must die to faith is nothing to complain about.

Take a Knee

A few years ago, I realized I was thankful to be able to kneel.  Bad knees and arthritis runs in my family and I hope I don't experience it sooner rather than later, but at some point it will be hard for me to kneel. So I am thankful I can now.

Yesterday, the meditation in Magnificat had the phrase "subject the flesh to the spirit" which reminded me of when I first thought about kneeling.

For a few weeks I was trying to think of some small mortification I could do for our Lord. To kneel for long periods of time hurts, but we could definitely call it subjecting the flesh to the spirit as well as bending the mind to the will.  I thought kneeling is an inconspicuous way to offer extra for Christ on Calvary.

There are always ways to raise up small discomforts to join with the sufferings of the cross, but to kneel before His great glory in joy, thankfulness, sorrow or dryness is a great grace.

Any extra time spent kneeling in church or not is part of a narrow path that God calls us too. I am going to try it out a little more at home and see what God comes up with for me.

Queen of the Universe Adoration Chapel, Orlando, FL