Who is My Neighbor?

This past weekend, the first Mass reading was from Leviticus 19 which talks about loving your neighbor as yourself. The Gospel reading was from Matthew 5 and was about not only loving your neighbor but also your enemy.

I believe that we are asked to love our neighbor because sometimes our neighbor is the hardest to love. They can often annoy and frustrate us the most! Especially those neighbors who are rude, obnoxious and do not understand boundaries.  Often, if we can learn to love our neighbors, we can love anyone. Also, if we are not able to love our neighbor whom we can see, how can we love God whom we can not see (1John 4:20)?

It's interesting how people often do not make the connection and Christians pick and choose what bible verses they want to follow!

Currently, the person who bought out house in Florida and our previous neighbor are feuding. Ironically, they are both professing Christians. They are feuding over trees.

You see, our previous neighbor has huge trees that almost completely hang over the pool of our previous house. When we lived there, I did find the trees annoying and it was frustrating trying to keep the pool clean but I also understood that our neighbors didn't have the extra money to trim them and we didn't have the extra money to trim them so I tried to look at the positive side of things (at least I had a pool to clean leaves out of, it was much needed exercise that I wouldn't otherwise be disciplined enough to get, etc.). Also, as I cleaned the leaves out of the pool, dumping them in the trash can I kept nearby, I would offer the frustration of it as a prayer for others. Being able to offer that up as a prayer kept the peace in the neighborhood.

Well, it turns out that the new owners do not share the same sentiment. They have been scooping the leaves out of the pool and throwing them over the fence of the neighbors. Needless to say, that isn't going over so well with the neighbors and I am hearing about it as well as the rest of the neighborhood. Suddenly this peaceful neighborhood I once lived in, isn't so peaceful anymore.

Like I said before, both families are professing Christians. Now this is not a blog post about immigration but I find it ironic that my old neighbor is also very angry over the "immigration ban".

How can we love immigrants and foreigners if we can not even love our neighbor?!

No matter where we move to, there is always going to be THAT neighbor. We currently have THAT neighbor at our new home. She is a very grumpy, middle-aged woman whom doesn't seem to like life much. I keep being kind to her. Maybe eventually she will open up to me and I will find out why she is so miserable. If she doesn't though, I will keep loving her.

Even though loving our neighbor doesn't necessarily mean just the person next door, If we would all start there first, the world would probably be a lot more peaceful of a place.

I remember a story Mother Theresa once told of a Muslim woman whose family didn't have anything to eat and was starving. Mother Theresa gave her food for her family. The Muslim woman ended up giving half of the food to her neighbor. This Muslim woman proved to be a better Christian than most Christians!

If you are a Christian, Christianity isn't just a nice philosophy or idealistic notion! If we are true followers of Jesus, we are called not only to be kind but to lay our life down for others, pick up our cross and love even our enemies!

The Writing is on the Wall

I probably do not need to make this statement because it has become rather obvious but there is a lot of civil unrest, anxiety and fear right now in our nation and in the world. Some of it is justified, some of it is not. 

The Writing is on the Wall! 

The definition of that statement originally came from the book of Daniel in the bible and means: There are clear signs that something unpleasant or unwelcome is about to happen. You can also read the story from Daniel 5 and draw your own conclusions.

Not to be the bearer of bad news but it's about to get even uglier out there!

The good news is that God is in control! He will use these times for his purposes and glory!

People are learning that you can not put your trust in man. Obama was not the answer. Trump is not the answer. Only Jesus is the answer!

If you are a Christian, it is your time to shine! Especially if you have been in a place of hiddenness and rest, receiving God's love for you and his transforming work. You are about to get your moment! As conditions worsen in the world, people are going to be looking for answers and are going to turn to the Church. You will have the opportunity to point people to the Way!

Now is not the time for confrontation or heated arguments. It is not the time to blame or vilify. 

It is the time however to show the world what true, sacrificial love looks like! Hold on, trust and keep your eyes on Jesus. It might be a wild ride!

What the World Needs Now

Often we are forced to take sides. As fragmented humans we have a tendency toward extremes and society often forces us to extremes. We can think that things are either/or when it is really both/and or neither. Also the truth is usually found somewhere in the middle.

However, it is thought that if we are not on one side of an issue or political party, well, we must be on the other. If we don't agree with something one political party stands for, then we must agree with everything the other stands for.

If we don't agree with certain behaviors, well, we must not love a person engaged in that behavior. 

The same holds true in Christian circles because we are still sinners, trying to figure this all out. 

I love the scripture from Hebrews 4:16! It says, we can approach the throne of grace with all confidence!

I have noticed a tendency however for Christians to water down the Gospel message in order to feel worthy to approach the glory of God and the throne of his grace.They think it is either/or. They also think the Gospel message needs to be watered down in order to reach people with Christ's love even though real love is rooted and grounded in truth; in the cross. If it isn't, then it isn't real love.

The other extreme is to realize the greatness of God but put up walls out of a feeling of unworthiness to approach him, as well as condemn and judge others whom they feel are falling short.

Both sides and attitudes miss the mark!

This is a situation where it is both/and! God is Great, Glorious, and Holy but we can still approach him in all his awesomeness, in all our sinfulness and receive his infinite love and mercy! It is a free gift!

How do we get to this place of both/and? We approach God, in all his Glorious Sacredness, recognizing our sinfulness and we sit, surrender, and rest in his extravagant love for us! We let him pour the oil of his mercy and love over us and transform us from the inside out! Then we go out and show others this kind of radical, sacrificial, extravagant love! A love that is sacrificial loves without compromise; a love that is willing to sit with someone in their pain and their struggles! A love that hurts! A love that doesn't back down! A love that recognizes the dignity of every human being made in the image and likeness of God! If this kind of love is received, it encourages people to come up higher instead of choosing the easy way out!

This is what the world needs!!!

The Heart of the Matter

This past weekend our family went on a retreat with the BSCD. It was our annual regional gathering. We had it at St. Leo Abbey in St. Leo, Florida. It is always good to get together, reconnect with other like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ and encounter the Lord together. It was a powerful time and the Holy Spirit definitely showed up and blessed us!

The Lord started speaking to me right off the bat when we arrived. We were letting our children run around on the beautiful monastery grounds before we went up to our room. My five year old daughter was enjoying herself at first but then she kept encountering bugs which were scary to her. She asked me, "Mom, why are there so many bugs here?" I told her it was because there was a lot of nature and bugs like nature. I then said to her,"Just focus on the nature and don't pay attention to the bugs." Immediately I knew the Lord was speaking to me. So often in life I pay more attention to little annoyances, frustrations and objects of stress in my life rather than the beauty and blessings around me. By doing this, I rob myself of joy.

Another way I think we rob ourselves of joy is by choosing to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life. We get caught up in what we should or should not be doing instead of making it our main goal to encounter Christ and rest in his love for us.

Saturday afternoon we had time for worship and the Lord showed me an image to share. It was of a big, bright red, fully ripe strawberry hanging from a tree. It was so ripe it was dripping with juice. I knew the strawberry represented the heart of Jesus. I heard the Lord say, "Pick from the choicest of fruit which is love! Taste and see that the Lord is good! Then go out and give this love away to those who do not know about my love!" The word was full of emotion as I experienced the Lord's heart for his people. This word also went right along with what the Lord has been showing me over the last few months. We can be doing all the right things, keeping up with our responsibilities and even having a daily prayer life but if our main goal isn't to actually encounter Jesus and experience his love for us every day then life ends up feeling burdensome and lacking joy.

Last week Pope Francis tweeted, "Each encounter with Jesus fills us with joy, with that deep joy which only God can give."

Nehemiah 8:10 says, "The joy of the Lord is our strength."

Encountering Christ and his love everyday is how we eat from the tree of life. This is what gives us joy and propels us forward with the strength we need. It is this joy that will attract others to Christ and our way of life.

What does love look like?

A couple days ago I blogged that the main word for the church right now is to love one another. I think however that there are a lot of misconceptions about what love looks like so I thought I would compile a list. It is not an exhausted list. Some of the points are self explanatory and with other points I give a little bit of an explanation. Of course there is also the list from Corinthians 13, some of which I list here as well.

First and foremost we can not give love away unless we first receive from the source of all love which is God himself. You can not give away what you do not have! Mother Theresa and her community of sisters would pray for an hour in Eucharistic adoration every morning before they even attempted to serve the poor. We need to be able to first receive Christ's love and then be willing to give it away. The most perfect example of love can be found in the cross.

Love isn't always taking the easy route.
True love is self-sacrificing, putting the needs of others first and our needs last. Love is willing to lay our own lives down for the sake of others.

Love isn't always saying the easy things. Love is willing to say the hard things.
Sometimes because of our love for others and concern for their spiritual well being, we need to be willing to say the hard things that others are not willing to say even when it doesn't seem convenient or popular.

Love is not the same as tolerance.
Especially in our day and age there is a lot of confusion about this. People think it is loving to be tolerant of all behaviors.

Love does not get easily offended.
Have you ever known someone who gets easily offended?  Especially when it is a family member or someone close, it can feel like walking on egg shells. Usually if people are easily offended it is because they are not yet perfected in love. These people need to be shown extra grace instead of getting offended back and getting into arguments.

Love is not arrogant or boastful.
We need to regard others as better than ourselves. We must always be first willing to look at the plank in our own eye before looking at the speck in another person's eye.

Love is patient and kind.
My children challenge me on this one all the time!

Love is not rude.
I'm not sure all churches got this memo when they hired their church receptionist. Of course not my church :)

Love might look different towards a believer and a non believer.
Sin is sin and there are moral absolutes but a believer who knows better will be held more accountable than a non believer. What is most important is that we help non believers encounter Christ and then we can show them the road map. Believers are held to a higher standard. Church leadership and people on the worship team even a higher standard. Believers who know better but continue to deliberately sin need to be confronted. This is a corporal work of mercy.

Love isn't just letting someone do whatever they want.
I belonged to a church once where grace was preached on a regular basis but they had the wrong idea of what true grace really looked like. Their idea of grace was more of a 'cheap grace' like Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about where there was no cost. This idea of grace is actually harmful to the people involved, hinders their freedom and is not safe for those around them. Real freedom isn't letting someone do whatever they want but helping them be set free from their addictions and mental anguish.

Love is having boundaries.
A child who is able to do whatever he/she wants and whose parents do not set boundaries usually does not feel loved. The reason there are rules in life is for our protection and safety. When we break the rules and fall into sin, we become a little less human. We were all made in the image and likeness of God. Each time we sin, it chips away at our dignity as human persons and tarnishes God's image in us. God, out of his love for us, has rules for us to abide by for our protection. Sometimes love requires us to warn others of the ramifications of their actions.

Love is willing to risk your own reputation for another and be willing to be misunderstood.
Doing the loving thing does not always equal the popular thing and can easily lead to misunderstandings and make us look like we are being unloving.

Love is not judgmental.
There is a difference between deliberately sinning and someone who is struggling with sin. Someone struggling with sin but yet wanting to do the right thing needs to be shown a lot of grace and mercy.