WATCHWORD:
I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:19
Meditation:
Talking with God
My daughter found this conversation with God by John Roedel and sent it on to me. It is such a good and appropriate message that I wanted to share it with you. Keep in mind, this is You and God having a conversation.
A Conversation with God:
Me: Hey God.
God: Hello…
Me: I’m falling apart. Can you put me back together?
God: I would rather not.
Me: Why?
God: Because you aren’t a puzzle.
Me: What about all of the pieces of my life that are falling down onto the ground?
God: Let them stay there for a while. They fell off for a reason. Take some time and decide if you need any of those pieces back.
Me: You don’t understand! I’m breaking down!
God: No – you don’t understand. You are breaking through. What you are feeling are just growing pains. You are shedding the things and the people in your life that are holding you back. You aren’t falling apart. You are falling into place. Relax. Take some deep breaths and allow those things you don’t need anymore, to fall off of you. Quit holding onto the pieces that don’t fit you anymore. Let them fall off. Let them go.
Me: Once I start doing that, what will be left of me?
God: Only the very best pieces of you.
Me: I’m scared of changing.
God: I keep telling you – YOU AREN’T CHANGING!! YOU ARE BECOMING!
Me: Becoming who?
God: Becoming who I created you to be! A person of light and love and charity and hope and courage and joy and mercy and grace and compassion. I made you for more than the shallow pieces you have decided to adorn yourself with that you cling to with such greed and fear. Let those things fall off of you. I love you! Don’t change! … Become! Become! Become who I made you to be. I’m going to keep telling you this until you remember it.
Me: There goes another piece.
God: Yep. Let it be.
Me: So … I’m not broken?
God: Of course Not! – but you are breaking like the dawn. It’s a new day. Become!!!
–Author John Roedel
Commentary:
Life is filled with unexpected pits and twists. What has been happening to you over these past several years? We have all had our ups and downs, our challenges that as they have forced us maybe to change direction, or to adjust to a new normal, maybe one that is not as comfortable as you remember it to be. Maybe over these past several years you’ve lost love ones, you’ve changed where you lived, you’ve added new loved ones to your life. Maybe you have drawn closer to family, loved ones, friends. Perhaps you have drawn closer to God and your faith. Twists and turns and perhaps shedding a piece of your old life and found it was replaced with something even better, more blessed, more at peace. – Thank you, Lord.
Over these past several years, as you look back, has God matured you in your faith. Has he draw you closer to the Word? Have our lives been blessed in ways that will bless the lives of others, now, and into the future? It’s the way that God has in changing us to become who he created us to be. Amen.
Closing with The Prayer of Saint Francis – or is it?:
Many people, if asked for a prayer of St Francis, would name this one. However, it is not in fact by Francis, but comes from an unknown French source, and was first recorded around 1913. The prayer captures the spirit of Francis.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
