Via Dolorosa Per Pax. Saturday March 12. Lent 2011.

Via Dolorosa per Pax.

It’s the name of this blog.

It is Latin for the Way of Suffering with peace.

When my dad and I were in Israel, we were extremely blessed to be able to walk this Way of Suffering.

We walked that actual path that Jesus walked from His encounter with Pilate to the tomb where Jesus was laid after His crucifixion and death.

It was such an amazing experience.

And, though it was very emotional, it wasn’t sorrowful, it was peaceful.

It was just our group walking the streets of Israel at 5am. There was peace as we made our way to each station.

I think this is what our walk through life as a Christian is supposed to be like.

There is going to be sorrow, suffering, and pain.

Jesus did say that we were going to have to DAILY pick up our crosses.

But I don’t think that means that our lives have to be sorrowful.

We don’t have to complain about the pain and suffering. 

After all, Jesus also told us to follow Him BECAUSE His burden is easy and His load is light.

Well then, which is it? Can it be both?

I think it can.

I think we can live day in and day out carrying our little crosses for Christ and do it peacefully knowing that His burden is easy and His load is light; knowing that there is peace to be found in the imitation of Christ carrying the cross.

The Way of Suffering with peace.

Via Dolorosa per Pax.

Now, with all this talk of little sufferings and trials, Lent comes to mind.

I think the first few days of our Lenten sacrifices are the hardest; especially on the weekend.  Facebook is calling your name, or you really want to join in on sweets, or you are so tempted to hit the snooze button. Our Lenten sacrifice is probably not a routine yet but more of a nuisance or a burden.  Lent is, on a smaller scale, the Way of Suffering, which then means you have the amazing ability to make it a peaceful journey, through the power of Christ. I fully understand that Lent is a hard thing. This Lent has not been easy for me thus far but, regardless I am still finding peace it in. I am finding joy in Lent because it has been a peaceful experience. I pray wholeheartedly that you find this same peace and joy this Lent. 

The Gospel for today is from Luke 5:

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Awesome scripture!

Levi, a tax collector, dropped everything he was doing and followed Jesus and Jesus’ command.  And THEN Levi had a banquet, or a feast, for Jesus at His own house.

It would be an awesome thing if today, we all did what Levi did, just drop all our house projects, cleaning, our carpooling from place to place, even for just 5 minutes, and take the time to pray. Tell Jesus how your Lent is going so far. Is it hard? Are you ready to give up? Have you broken your Lenten sacrifice?

It really would be just a beautiful thing if we just dropped everything going on during our crazy Saturday and just BE with Jesus.

Jesus is inviting you.

He is inviting all of us.

He says in the next part of this Gospel that he does not call the righteous to repentance but He calls the SINNERS. Well I know very well that I am included in the latter category. We are all sinners.  Jesus said he CAME for us! The sinners! How beautiful.

We have no excuse to not just say a quick hello to Him today.

He came for US.

He died for US.

The LEAST we can do this Lenten weekend is just BE with the Lord who came to offer you eternal life.

May the peace of Christ be with you today and always.

Christ is that peace.

Find Him.

Prayers for Japan. Friday March 11. Lent 2001.

Poor, poor Japan.

An 8.9 earthquake rocked their world.

The 5^th largest earthquake ever recorded.

The largest ever recorded in Japan.

Violently shook for a full 5 minutes.

Aftershocks shook at around a magnitude of 6.0.

Then a tsunami flooded their lives.

Cars, people, houses, buildings, boats, just drift away in these powerful waters.

Only the power of God is stronger than these earthquakes and tsunamis.

There are tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific Ocean.

Both Hawaii and the West coast are expected to be hit.

It is in moments like these when we simply ask God, “Why?”

Why the pain and suffering? Why the fear and uncertainty?

It is punishment? It is a test? It is to draw us closer to You?

These questions cannot be answered by us.

The answers are only for God to know.

But doesn’t this fear and uncertainty make us want to do a little better with our lives?

To say a little bit longer of a goodbye to our families as we go to work or school today?

Or to hold the door open for the person you pass everyday?

Or to pray just a little bit longer?

Or to be more helpful?

Or just to act like a Christian?

Fear has great power over us.

But if we are fearful, we are not trusting in the Lord as we should.

If we truly believe, then we will have peace in the fact that the Lord knows what He is doing, we will trust that He has power over all these natural disasters, and we will believe He has a reason- for EVERYTHING.

Here is the first reading for today from Isaiah 58:

Thus says the Lord GOD: cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; tell my people their wickedness and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; they ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

I think this reading is interesting at this time.

It talks about fasting which pertains to us being at the beginning of Lent.  The Lord is simply giving more directions on how to fast appropriately.  But what is really promising is the last part of this reading. The Lord says that if we do good, which all of us have done some good and one point or another, He will be there for us!

“Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!”

When the faithful cry for help God will answer the cry!

He may not answer our prayers exactly the way we want; but even better, He will answer them in the way His will desires! 

He IS God, He know everything.

Take comfort in knowing that He knows the number of hairs on your head.

He will care for you.

Do not let fear of earthly things overcome you.

Let fear of the Lord overwhelm you.

He will amaze you.

Trust in Him.

Praise God in the fact that you can take consolation and have peace in Him.

You are so blessed to have the option to completely disregard the earthly fear in your life.

Others may not realize that they are so blessed.

Or they may be too afraid.

This is where we all need offer what we have, trust and fear in the Lord, to others.

Japan needs prayer.

We have the strength and the means to pray for Japan.

This is our job as Christians.

Hundreds have died.

Hundreds are missing.

Hundreds are fearful.

We NEED to pray.

We need to pray for the souls who have died.

We need to pray for the rescues workers.

We need to pray for the families that were torn apart. 

We need to pray for everyone in Japan.

In our humanness we all want answers to the deep and burning question of why? But we REALLY need to accept that fact that our merciful and just God knows exactly what He is doing. 

Pray.

Trust.

Be faithful.

We will be rewarded.

In our hearts we want to do more but we must trust in the power of pray, leave the rest to God, and just let it be.

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

And when the brokenhearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be

For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Yeah, there will be an answer let it be


Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

And when the night is cloudy
There is still a light that shines on me
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be

I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Yeah, let it be, let it be
Let it be, yeah, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

The Beatles-

Let it Be

Healing. Thursday March 10. Lent 2011.

Jesus is funny sometimes. 

I was at the gym listening to this song. 

My mind started spinning and related this song, by The Offspring, to our lives. 

It is called Fix You and it really is such a beautiful song and such a cry for help.

The cry that is alive in all of our hearts.

“…I wish I could fix you
And make you how I want you
I wish I could fix you
And I wish you could fix me

I wish I could heal you
And mend where you are broken
I wish I could heal you
And I wish you could heal me…

She sees a million stars, like holes in the sky
All God’s tears for her they cry
And I am in her rain”

In this song, Dexter Holland is crying out.

Someone he knows is hurting.

He is hurting for his friend.

He is hurting because his friend is hurting.

He is hurting because he cannot heal that person.

He knows in his humanness that he can do nothing to heal or fix this person.

I think it would be safe to assume we have all been in situations where we want to just simply make everything better for someone.  Even if it is something as simple as trying to comfort a toddler who has fallen or if it is something more serious such as a friend going through depression.  It is so very painful to see someone in pain and know you can do nothing to help them.

Mother Mary knows this all too well.  She was strong enough, bold enough to go to the foot of the cross where Her Son was bruised and beaten and then innocently hung on the cross and left to die.  The movie The Passion presents this scene of the crucifixion so well.  Mary helplessly kneels at the foot of the cross while gripping the gravel of Calvary with her face writhing in pain.  The pain of watching Her Son die and yet still, the greater pain of KNOWING She can do NOTHING to help Him.

Among all this pain and sorrow there is still hope.

That hope is Jesus Christ.  He alone can heal you. He alone can fix you. He alone is sufficient.  He IS love, of course He can heal, fix, and restore.

We are all broken. We are all torn apart.  We are all in need of healing.  We need to be fixed.  We need to be touched by the healing grace of the Healer. 

Bring all your brokenness to the foot of the cross this Lent.  Jesus is the ultimate healer.  He can mend where you are broken.  He can fix you. Run to Him with your broken heart.  Run to Him with all your sorrows.  Take time this Lent to humble yourself down to the most broken area of your heart and let the Savior heal you and fix you.  He will not let you down.  Unlike us, He DOES have the power to heal. 

Jesus IS the healer. 

Go.

Run.

Be healed.

“So you thought you had to keep this up
All the work that you do
So we think that you're good
And you can't believe it's not enough
All the walls you built up
Are just glass on the outside

So let 'em fall down
There's freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We're here now

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

Afraid to let your secrets out
Everything that you hide
Can come crashing through the door now
But too scared to face all your fear
So you hide but you find
That the shame won't disappear

So let it fall down
There's freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We're here now
We're here now, oh

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

Sparks will fly as grace collides
With the dark inside of us
So please don't fight
This coming light
Let this blood come cover us
His blood can cover us

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark”

Tenth Avenue North-

Healing Begins

Ash Wednesday 2011

Well today marks the beginning of this Lenten journey. 

Today has been just beautiful, thus far.

My dad and I went to 6:30am mass at the church across the street due to our early schedules. First beautiful part of the day- the church was jam packed.  People were standing in the back.  At 6:30am! Seriously.  Even if the people attending mass were attending out of routine and tradition- it really doesn’t matter! They were there. We were all in communion with our Jesus on this Ash Wednesday. 

This morning’s gospel was taken from Matthew 6.  Jesus gives us exact direction for this Lenten season.  The Lord himself asks us to pray, fast, and give alms.  Jesus requests that we be humble during this season of sacrifice.  He wants us to make sacrifices and do them well.  Jesus wants us to pray in secret, after all, prayer in essentially communicating with God.  Prayer loses its sacredness if you let the whole world know about your communication with God.  When we fast, He does not want us to fast and then complain about being hungry or make ourselves look like we are in need of food. When we give of ourselves to help others, whether that is in the form of time or money, it is also to be done in secret.  We are not supposed to make a scene about giving of ourselves or tell everyone how much time and work we put into the church.  Jesus goes so far as to use the example that when we give alms, one hand should not know what the other hand is doing.  In our humanness it is hard to fast and not complain; it is hard to not boast about the great work we are doing in the church or about how many hours we spend in prayer but we will be rewarded for our humility.  The Lord knows everything.  He sees how much money you put in the collection basket, He knows how often you pray, and He definitely knows what it feels like to want food.  We are promised that the Father sees us in secret and He will reward us.  Sounds like a deal to me.  Any reward from the Father will be FAR greater than the earthly satisfaction of someone commenting on our good deeds.

So after mass, I went to school. Walking around Golden West with this smear of black something or other across my forehead was…interesting.  I got just about every response in the book.  Each response crushed my pride a little bit more.  I was so tempted to somehow get rid of the black smear on my forehead but boy, did Jesus show me.  The first responses I got were the “looks”, the being snickered at, the not so quiet whispers of “It’s Ash Wednesday.” “Huh?” “Ash Wednesday.” “Oh, got it.”  These responses though somewhat awkward and not what my pride wanted were beautiful.  It enlivened the passage in 1 Corinthians.  “We are fools on Christ’s account.” (1 Corinthians 4:10) My conceit died a little and the pride in my Lord rose a little.  The next response I got was a little more accepting and hopeful.  I had a guy pass me and then back up and say, “Oh! It’s already Ash Wednesday? I am such a bad Catholic. I got to get to church!” Thank you, Jesus.  This only made me more proud to be a Catholic.  In my last class of the day, I had a fellow student come up to me and say, “Um, excuse me, are you Catholic?” “Yeah” “Oh, well I thought those were ashes on your forehead. I just moved here and so I don’t know the churches around here. Can you please tell me what church you go to?” BEAUTIFUL.  Each and every response from each person, from the snickers to desires to go to mass.  And Jesus used me?! The girl who wanted to wipe the ashes away after the first smirk? God definitely uses the weak and the foolish.

This day has been beautiful and I praise the Lord for stepping all over my pride today. 

I pray that this Ash Wednesday has been and will continue to be a day of prayer and a day of gaining a unity with Christ this Lent.  Pray to Him.  Ask Him for strength to carry out your Lenten sacrifices.  He IS the ultimate sacrifice.  He is fully capable of strengthening you this day and throughout Lent.

May Your passion and death humble and strengthen us this Lent.  

LENT 2011

Ah, Lent. It's THAT time of the year. The season of Lent is always and interesting part of the year. I know for me, I half dread it and half look forward to it.  It is such an outstanding time to become closer to Christ yet, in our humanness, the thought of giving up something for the whole season of Lent seems overwhelming. We cannot go through this Lent alone.  We need to use Christ as our crutch and lean on Him in His love, mercy, and tenderness. We need to support the other individuals in the Church through their journeys this Lent.

I was given the idea to update my blog and post each day during Lent. I hope that I can keep up with this! I hope and pray that this blog can be a source of help and inspiration for you this Lent. And if it is a help to anyone- praise God, it will only be because of His glory.

During this Lenten journey, I will pray for you all daily. I pray that each one of you will be blessed enough to enter into a deep and personal relationship with Christ. I pray that whatever you are sacrificing this Lent will help you better understand the sufferings of Christ. And as I pray for you, I humbly ask for your prayers during this Lent.

May God bless you abundantly during this season of Lent!

This is the front of the Church of All Nations in Israel. This church is built over the rock that Jesus was believed to have wept upon during the Agony in the Garden. Bring yourself to this place. Just BE with Christ this Lent. Just BE. He will meet you exactly where you are. 

The Eucharist and Youth Ministry

The Eucharist.  The Catholic Church says that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324) The source being “the beginning” and the summit being “the acme: the highest level attainable.” (Webster Dictionary)  It’s pretty significant that the Eucharist is both the starting point and the highest point of Christian life.  The power of the Eucharist is outstanding.  The Catholic Church points out that “our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.” (CCC 1327) 

The Eucharist is the starting point of the Catholic faith.  The Eucharist should be the CENTER, the CORE, and the HEART of every Catholic.  Christ, the Eucharist, should be the center of our lives individually. The Eucharist should be the center of our lives as a Church. 

I believe that if you do not have Christ as the center of each ministry in the church, the ministry will not succeed or flourish to the best of its ability.  The Eucharist is supposed to be the most significant and vital part of the life of a Catholic, so why not make it the most vital part of all the ministries in the church?

There is hope in the Catholic Church right now.

However, I think there could be a lot more hope. 

I think there could be more strength, confidence, excitement, and drive in the Church. 

I think more people need to be on fire for Christ. 

Shouldn’t everyone feel like they are on a “Jesus high”? 

What better way to revitalize the Catholic Church than placing more emphasis on the Eucharist. 

After all, the Eucharist is the beginning of our faith and the highest point of our faith.

The HIGHEST point. 

Wouldn’t the highest point of one’s life be filled with strength, confidence, joy, excitement, and drive? Aha! Do you see where this is going?

If we as Catholics do a better job of placing emphasis on the Eucharist, if we do a better job of making the Eucharist the CENTER of our lives the church would thrive and lives would be changed.

The life of the Church is in the power of the Eucharist.

Over the past year and a half or so God has really placed on my heart a love, a deep love, for church ministry, specifically youth ministry.  All my friends know that, God willing, I want to become a youth minister. This brings up a story.  A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, who is involved in youth ministry, asked me, “You want to be a youth minister.  What kind of youth minister do you want to be? How do you want to run your youth group?”  His question really surprised me, for a couple reasons.  The first reason being that even though my friend is involved in youth ministry, he is a very go with the flow person, as long as the teens are happy and learning about Jesus, the specifics of youth ministry do not matter to him and the second reason was that I do very much like the details and specifics of how a youth group is run and even I had not even asked myself the questions he asked me.  Jesus used one of the most unlikely people to ask me the most obvious of questions.  It’s funny how He works.  So, I proceeded to answer his question.  Even though I had given this question no thought, I was able to come up with an answer, almost instantly.  And my answer? None other than the EUCHARIST. 

I came to the conclusion, within a matter of seconds, that for a youth group to strive and be successful, it must be centered on the Eucharist.  The Eucharist MUST be the core.

I had a significant a conversation with someone from church several years ago.  I must have been 11 or 12 and she was in high school.  She was telling me about how the number of teens who attended youth group used to be so huge but more recently, numbers started to dramatically decline.  I do not remember the exact numbers but I do remember being shocked that practically no one was going to youth group anymore.  I asked her why.  Why did people stop coming?  She said people were busy with school but she also gave another reason.  She said there was no spiritual substance. There was nothing substantial about offering teens food to bribe them to come to youth group.  She went on to say that even if the teens did not know it, they were looking for something more than food, a short talk, and small group.  She explained that the teens had a lot of issues going on in their lives.  They needed substance and stability.  Jesus was the only person who was able to help them with their issues and problems.  Even if the teens did not fully understand the Eucharist, they surely understood there was power and strength in the Eucharist. 

For the longest time I was not sure why I remembered this conversation basically word for word.  I now know why.  The reason I remembered this conversion was because this conversation contained the solid TRUTH about youth ministry as a whole.

This is the truth- youth ministers, as a whole, need to place more emphasis on the Eucharist.  If more youth ministers made an effort to make the Eucharist the center of their youth groups I think it would bring about many benefits and blessings.  I think the numbers of teens attending youth activities would rise, teens would be more confident in their faith, they would be bold enough to stand up for their faith, and I truly believe that more of an emphasis on the Eucharist would diminish the use of drugs, the amount of alcohol, and teen pregnancies.  I truly believe, and research has proven, that teens turn to alcohol, drugs, and sex due to either a lack of love or a perceived lack of love from their families.  The only being that can fill teens’ hearts with the love that they so desire and crave is Christ.        

Make the Eucharist the CENTER of youth ministry. 

Jesus has HUGE plans for the youth. 

The youth WILL rise up. 

They ARE going to be the face of the Church one day.

This is sure as heck not going to happen by offering them tacos. 

The youth WILL change the world, be the face of Christ, be the light of the world, be the salt of the earth, be the city on the hill THROUGH THE POWER OF THE EUCHARIST. (Matthew 5:13-14)     

It is said that obedience brought Jesus to the cross; LOVE is what kept Him there.

GOD IS LOVE. (1 John 4:8)

Love is what is going to keep teens coming to church and youth group.

A successful youth group MUST be centered about the Eucharist. 

Center

You’re the center of the universe
Everything was made in You, Jesus
Breath of every living thing
Everyone was made for You

Pre-Chorus:
You hold everything together
You hold everything together

Chorus:
Christ be the center of our lives
Be the place we fix our eyes
Be the center of our lives

We lift our eyes to heaven
We wrap our lives around your life
We lift our eyes to heaven, to You

Charlie Hall

The Whole Texas Story...And Some Lessons Learned Along The Way

Discomfort.  I have learned a lot about being uncomfortable this year.  I spent basically the first 18 years of my life in Southern California.  Less than a month after I turned 18, my family and I moved to Houston, Texas.  Talk about discomfort.

So the story goes, we received an e-mail that a friend of a friend had a few houses for rent in Spring, Texas.  We decided it pray about the whole situation.  The conclusion was drawn that it would be hard to move to Texas and it would be a harsh change but that a fresh start might be nice.  After much prayer, it was abundantly clear that we were supposed to move to Texas.   The 3 months before we moved to Texas my family and I kept receiving signs daily that we were in fact supposed to move to Texas.  These generous signs came in many different forms.  One day we would talk to someone who had lived in Spring, Texas or someone who almost moved to Spring.  One night there was a box of “Texas Sized Cinnamon Rolls” just randomly sitting in the youth room.  Instead of buying the garlic bread that we normally bought, my mom accidentally bought a box of “Garlic Texas Toast”.  The signs continued.  Though we were uncomfortable about the move to Texas we were, by the grace of God, obedient to Him.  We knew if we did what we were called to do; it would be okay. 

We left California March 3^rd and drove the 3 day drive to Spring, Texas.  We pulled into the neighborhood of the house we were supposed to rent and we were appalled- and afraid.  There were drug dealers at the front of the neighborhood and as we drove through the neighborhood it did not get any better.  It felt unsafe and there was just a vibe of pure evil.  The owner of the house took the time to tell my family and I how unsafe the neighborhood was; there had been shootings and robberies.  The neighborhood was so horrible that my younger sisters couldn’t even walk outside alone.    

We. Were. Crushed.

We packed up everything, picked ourselves up, and threw ourselves into something totally new.  We did this because we trusted God and we trusted that He would keep us safe.  I was furious.  I had trusted with my life and this is where He brought me?

We realized we were not going to be able to stay in that house.  We stayed in a hotel for a few nights.  That was interesting.  The 5 of us, two dogs, a bird, and a guinea pig in two hotel rooms.  These insane and unsure days were one big waiting game.  We talked to the pastor at a church about 40 minutes away in the Woodlands, Texas.  He had such a simple solution- he said we should ask the homeschool group we were already connected with if there were and houses for rent in the area.  We were all so confused and upset that we could not think clearly enough to come to the conclusion that the pastor had come to.

Within 3 or 4 days, simply by the grace of God, we had a house.  A house in a nice, safe, and family oriented neighborhood.  We should have been thrilled but we weren’t.  We tried to praise God but it was hard.  We attempted to rejoice in the Lord but it was painful. 

We were so uncomfortable- to say the VERY least!

The homeschool group was fine but it wasn’t our group of friends.  The church was decent but it wasn’t the church we had come to know and love.  There was nothing WRONG with Texas, I mean people live there and the state as a whole is a wonderful state.  But we had all had such a hard time with the house in Spring being a let down that we approached the rest of Texas with a harshness and with cold hearts.  Instead of being open and willing to see what Texas had to offer we were closed off.

During the summer months, we were able to survive just fine.  The heat was tough but it was bearable.  We were attending church on Sundays and going to the gym but there did not seem to be much else to do.  There was still something that was not right.  The painful ache of the fact that we were not home did not subside. 

At the beginning of June, there was some small talk between my dad and a friend of his about a possible job back in California.  The possibility of a job in California seemed so unrealistic and out of reach.  We were partly ecstatic and partly terrified of being let down again. It was around a 2 month waiting game.

By the grace of the Holy Spirit, everything worked out and my dad was offered an outstanding job right in same area we had moved from.  We had 15 weeks left in Texas and then we would finally be going back HOME.  We simply could not wait for the day until we were able to leave Texas. 

During the 15 weeks left in Texas I completed a semester of school and made some great friends along the way.  My sisters started school in August so that they would be finished early in December so that they could help my mom pack the house up.  All in all the time seemed to go by pretty quickly.

The holidays, birthdays, and weeks just danced away as December 16^th approached.  I finished my finals December 15^th and we left Texas for California at 4am on December 16^th.  We were all so anxious to get back to California that my dad, very generously, made the trip home in two days. December 17^th, though chaotic, was a glorious day.

We. Were. Home.

We have been home for just over two weeks now and it is just incredible.  The Lord has so richly blessed my family.  I am so thankful to be back home.  However, I do realize that we were called to Texas for a reason.  I don’t know that I can pinpoint the exact reason, as much as I would LOVE to be able to do so.   I do know that there are some lessons to be learned along the journey though.

Earlier this week I was thinking back on this insane year and I was wondering if anyone else understood the circumstances and the pain and the joy.  Then the Holy Spirit light bulb went on.

 

JESUS!

Jesus went through the same thing. And I’m not saying this in a fluffy manner but truly, He understands.  Look at it this way, if we can all agree upon the fact that heaven was and is His home, then earth would have been His temporary home and possibly a place of discomfort for Him.  I am quite certain that Jesus would have experienced some discomfort on earth or some sorrow in missing His Father BUT He went to earth OUT OF OBEDIENCE.  He listened to His Father.  He had a mission to complete.  He had to save the world from death.  Regardless of His mission, He was still a man, a man who was out of place, He was not home, but He completed His mission with GRACE!

I believe that we all have missions to complete.  These missions are given to us by the Father.  I believe there was a reason we were called to Texas.  And I pray with every part of my being that I completed the mission given to me by the Father.  And I pray even more wholeheartedly for His forgiveness if I did not complete the mission given to me by Him. 

I am sorry to all my friends that I complained to while I was in Texas.  I apologize for not seeing this past year as a way of gaining an inexpressible closeness with Christ.

Though I am so not worthy, I take this time to ask you, please, during your next trial in life, turn to Christ.  He has a mission for you to complete.  I want you to be blessed enough to KNOW that you completed the mission He gave you as opposed to WONDERING if you did.

Life was not meant to be easy but it surely will be easier and more grace filled if we turn to Christ during our toughest times.  “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)