To Serve God

We pass through each days observing yet not always seeing, loving yet not always touching. Each Christian contains prayers not prayed, questions not asked. We have opinions, dreams, desires, daydreams. Life engulfs us, splashes against us, taunts us, haunts us. We seek salvation, entrance to the Kingdom of heaven. Our actions often make us pause, our actions make us wonder if we are truly worthy.

 

We often create all types of signs, find all types of reasons to stop, to not seek that which God wants us to seek. If the purpose of all Christian lives is to serve God, then the decision is already made for us and all we have to do is allow ourselves to serve God with charity, humility, and obedience.


As Christians we are encouraged to behave as God's children, as God's flock of sheep. I often wondered why we are not ever encouraged to act like a flock of pigeons. Birds are not docile creatures. Birds are not always easily controlled. Birds have a winged individualism much like the human rugged individualism. Birds can be part of a group yet be concerned only for themselves.

Birds are very interesting to observe as they go about their lives searching for food and flying. Depending upon the moment birds are great metaphorical or great allegorical creatures.

 

Sooner or later we all make a mistake. Life is filled with grammatical and typographical errors. How we deal with our mistakes, with our sins is important. Is "repent" part of our vocabulary? Is "penance" an action, a chore, or simply avoided? Do we accept our mistakes or simply walk away hoping to forget, hoping others will forget.

We forget so many things. We misplace so many things. So many bits and pieces of our actions wait to be discovered by others, wait to be uncovered by others. Secrets only exist within our minds. In reality things are often lost, often left behind like keys on a park bench.

 

We are members of different communities. We are asked to become team players, to do things for the good of the team. This is not always easy. This can create stress, anxiety, bad Hollywood movies.

As Christians being a team player is an interesting proposition. We are asked to believe and to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We are asked to join others both living and dead in serving the Lord. God wants us to be loyal, loving servants who have freely chosen to do his work, to sacrifice our lives. It is using our free will, using our minds to make choices, hopefully the good choices which will help ourselves and others become closer to God.

Being part of a team makes serving God a little easier, makes seeking goodness, holiness, and kindness a little easier.




It is always good to remember how God sees us, how we are encouraged to treat each other. God sees us as children, as his adopted children. That is very important, very instructive. Although we are created in the image of God we are not created as equals of God. We spend our entire lives learning about ourselves, about God.

Prayer is an essential element in developing a loving relationship with God.

As Christians we are asked to put our faith in God's hands, in the hands of other Christians, and in our hands. Depending on the moment, we are taking big steps or small toddler steps.

Hopefully as Christians our legs carry us toward God, toward salvation. Hopefully help and prayers are there when we need them.




Sometimes a picture of a squirrel on a fence is just a squirrel on a fence other times it is a metaphor for how we relate to our world, to God, to each other. Assigning meaning, making choices, accepting consequences these are things which we do every day. As Christians a purpose for our lives has been given to us. It is our responsibility to accept it.

Finding Your Road Map

It sometimes is useful to use our imaginations in relation to God. How we imagine God, how we imagine heaven, how we imagine our journey to eternal life is very important in our development as Christians. There are countless artistic representations of God, heaven, Jesus Christ. 

How we view the journey to God provides insights into our strengths, weaknesses, our needs, our desires.

Does the journey begin with loud noises, explosions. Are there grand declarations and cinematic arguments? Christian conversion is an ongoing process. Parts remain within the inner world of the mind and soul. Parts enter the outer world of friends, families, and strangers. The journey includes monologues, dialogues, miscommunication, communication. This journey becomes the biggest event in many lives, the most important event in many lives. This journey often includes access to God’s hotline. This journey rocks the foundation of many lives with basic questions about goodness, holiness, kindness. This journey creates bands of humility, charity, obedience, compassion. This journey begins with each individual making a private, interior offer to God. Human beings seek solace from the daily torment and torture of popular culture induced angst and anxiety. Popular culture creates cliched fantasies of mayhem, sex,  chaos, death, and destruction. There is a cartoon brilliance, a cartoon exaggerated color pallet inviting and yet --this angst, this anxiety leads away from truth, away from honor, away from God.

Popular culture distills agony, legitimizes it, encourages temporary escapes, blames this agony on other people. Popular culture profits from this agony. How many young people are encouraged to be  self-loathing, to vacillate between lethargy and urgency senselessly? How many people slip into desolation without even realizing it until it is too late? How popular it is to announce that “I am damaged!” Popular culture is quick to discover and hype the cruelty and hypocrisy faced by all living people. Popular culture finds each annoyance, finds each irritation, plays with it for a moment and then turns it gaze to something else.

Believing in God creates a path for each of us to make sense of our lives in relation to others, in relation to God. Our relationship with God can help us fine a place in the world.

Angst and anxiety are never original. They borrow, they imitate, they mock. 

Being Christian remains the ultimate rebellion, remains radical. Being Christian encourages a clever worldview of peace and love. Being Christian remains a constant learning and sharing the grace and glory of God, the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the love of God. The fusion of humility, charity, obedience, patience, compassion, wisdom creates a path to God, encourages love for neighbor, love for self, love for God. The love for God, over time, can produce coherent lyrics that can reach the alienated, the disaffected, the marginalized and invite them to come home, to return to the Lord.

It all begins with a journey, with a call. With both a call and response. With a call from God and a response from someone’s heart. Someone saying yes to the journey, yes to God.

Thoughts for a Rainy Week

This city is often filled with tourists behaving like tourists with cameras and maps and questions for hurried, harried residents slightly amused, slightly frightened by these strangers with accents. The summer is filled with all colors and fabrics and voices talking, laughing, asking for directions to the Zoo, to MacDonalds, to the Cathedral.



July contains an emotional shift of opportunity, playfulness as weekend trips away dominate many conversations. There are always sights, sounds, sales. Pedestrians often have pouting defiant lips. Everyone wears flip-flops. Everyone has bare ankles. Everyone yells into their cell phone from time to time. There is a subtle anxiousness, a nervous stammer. For everyone looks at the faux leather skirts, faux leather purses, everyone notices something which will not be mentioned now but will be shared with friends during dinner and happy hour. There are thigh high black leather go-go boots. There are kittens in well ventilated black mesh bags. There are people pointing, people waiting to cross the street.



I walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle each day aware of the waves of hope, waves of hopelessness. There is anxiety. There are questions about the tidal basin. There is motion, lots of movement. There are faces, there are helmets. Moving through the city is a highwire act requiring balance, confidence, looking forward, looking upward. There is noise, groans, grunts, gasps, laughter, accents. There is motion. At times I feel as if I am on a bridge not walking by a crowded coffee shop.





And I walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, hearing conversations in Spanish, Japanese, Greek, Russian; seeing people smile, laugh, pout, gesture. Sometimes I forget the city streets. Sometimes I imagine the outdoors, trees, the countryside. How great solitude and silence looks from the distance! How grand it would be to rest in the shade of a tree or wander around a pasture. 


Living in this city creates many bucolic diversions while trying to decide whether to have broccoli and goat cheese added to my salad. Living in this city presents many opportunities for goodness, kindness, holiness. Living in this city presents many opportunities for prayer.


There are trees and parks. There is despair. There is silence, hidden suffering. Prayer for everything is needed. 





And I walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew hundreds of tourists with cameras and cell phones and plastic bottles and cardboard cups pass by me. There is anticipation, anxiety. The faces are enjoying this moment. Enjoying the humidity. Enjoying the restlessness. Speed is important. Pedestrians race and dodge around each other. Some people bump and nudge on their separate journeys. But, it is important to remember that all those who believe in Christ are never alone, God is always with us.





There is much to see in the city. Each day there are lessons in goodness, lessons in kindness. The city is filled with all types of signs. Summer presents temptations and diversions. Summer reminds us to take time to be pray, to take time to praise and give thanks to God. There are so many signs in the city. Which do we read, which do we obey, which do we remember?





There are so many signposts directing us to God. Which do we read? Which do we obey? Which do we remember?





The Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle is often filled with tourists behaving like tourists with cameras and maps and questions and pointing fingers and waving hands and posing bodies. The Cathedral welcomes all, encourages all to enjoy the silence, to take a moment to offer thanks and praise to God. Here is a place to pray.

Martin Luther King, Jr Receives Memorial on Mall

Whenever I think of Martin Luther King, Jr., I immediately think about social justice. I think of fairness for all people. I think of hope. I think of doing the right thing in the face of all types of oppression. I think of making the ultimate sacrifice for the higher good.

As a Catholic I can use Martin Luther King as a model as I think about and work for change.

As an American there is something uniquely special about Martin Luther King, Jr. His fight for civil rights was very personal, lasted many years, was a plea for justice for all. His concern for humanity was universal. His concern for life was unconditional. Justice was not only for the privileged few, it was for all. His words were inspirational.

His life ended before his work was completed. The struggle for civil rights still continues today.

There is a new memorial dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. located on the Mall in Washington, DC.

Before/After