In Humble Service

Friends of Faith:

For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Lk 1: 11

God has a unique way of showing us right from wrong; of humbling us when we feel “good;” of guiding us on HIS path of righteousness; of asking us to learn His wisdom; of guiding us to understand others and of putting us in places which remind us to be more Christlike.

“My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not.” Sir 3: 17-18, 20

It isn’t easy to humble myself and let God determine if I have done right. I can’t just say I am saved and then make choices that are against God’s law; and being “good” doesn’t save me if I know that Christ wants me to profess to others His life (by living in His footsteps). So I must learn to be faithful and obedient, if that is what I profess to be. I must continue to pray (listen) to God, serve like Christ, discern through the Holy Spirit and ask His Church for guidance.

Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” …. “For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Lk 13: 22-30

Like many people I want to be assured that I am saved. I want to know I am right. I have a tendency to judge myself as “deserving” salvation rather than learning the patience, humility and courage that comes from knowing that I must allow God alone to judge me and that I may not always get what I want. I may even have to suffer here on earth to receive the rewards in heaven for DOing the work of BEing a Christian.

“For they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

God asks us not to love ourselves, but to make ourselves humble by loving Him and loving others. 

Jesus could have been taken the crown of the righteous King of the Jews. Instead he bore a crown of thorns and died on the cross, showing us how to suffer, showing us how to give up everything we want and have by dying to our own selfish desires for the sake of others. And Jesus showed us how to love by allowing God to have the ultimate control that He modeled to us by doing the works of a Christian.

Jesus gave up everything because love doesn’t come from a feeling, love comes from a service, that of serving others, of serving those who have less. Love is shown when the first become last, when those who have give to those who don’t; when those who are first give to those who are last; and when those who have wisdom find compassion – seeking to understand the foolish and downtrodden.

Love is shown in families when we say “I’m sorry for hurting you;” “I will take care of you even when I have something else planned;” “for better, for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health;” and when we forgive “seven times seventy” the spouse or the child who continues to (by our standards) to make a mess (of their rooms, or their lives). THIS is true love. This is God’s love. This is how God teaches us right from wrong, humbles us and shows us the straight and narrow path.

Heavenly Father, Mold and fashion me into someone who trusts you with humble innocence and a childlike faith. May my faith be so strong that it obeys with courage when I am asked to put my own desires last and others needs first. Help me to find peace in being powerless and joy in giving others the hope of seeing beyond this life into the next. Amen.

Be humble. Be last. Serve others. God will not forsake, for eternal, not earthly, happiness is His promise.

Blessings,

Charlotte

I Know You, do you Know Me?

Friends of Faith:

God knows what is best for us. Do we allow God to show us His way or do we choose our own path?

While the bible, God’s word, should be taken as a whole, and not just a partial phrase here or there, I have a favorite instruction from Paul’s instructions to the early Church that I believe if we even thought about once every day would bring every household closer to the heavenly household.

“Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, It is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”1 Cor 12: 31 – 13: 1-8

Love isn’t a warm and fuzzy feeling. Love is a verb. Love is an action word. It is not what I feel when I receive and it is not what I feel when I am served. Rather it is what I give WHEN I serve and it is what I give when I forgive. Love is not to WANT some THING, but to WANT TO GIVE something, to put Christ IN things (our choices).

Paul’s definition of God’s love is a reading that I like to go back to as a guide in making my own decisions and in guiding others towards theirs.

How many times am I an angel, who gives away everything, and has faith to move mountains and yet, when I speak I complain about someone else’s faults –and I am a clashing cymbal; who finds it easy to give a dollar in the collection plate but am stingy with saying yes when it comes to helping at a funeral dinner or taking the time to check on a neighbor? And has my silence in the political arena become approval for those who say “it’s my choice?”

Patience, kindness, humility, putting others first, choosing life, forgiving, choosing God is, are, and can all be tough choices.

It will hurt when I have to watch my child sit on the bench because I made the choice that Sunday mass came before practice or an early morning game.

I may have to “make up” time because I “gave up” time to check in on a neighbor or to listen to a friend’s woes.

I may feel like a failure or be shunned by a longtime friend because I courageously spoke the truth about God’s gift of life: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.” Jer 1: 4-5 (Will your candidate in tonight’s caucus protect human life from the very moment of conception?)

This is the Year of Mercy. Will I forgive those who think differently than I do, or the person who disrespected my space or belongings? Forgiveness is one of the toughest challenges of love.

Love is the greatest and often toughest choice. Choosing God’s love is much different than choosing who, what and when I want to love. Choosing God’s love is serving others needs before my own. Choosing God’s love means to forgive and to have tolerance of the faults of others. Choosing love means owning up to my mistakes and to find God in the acceptance of whatever challenges I face. (Think about this in terms of your spouse, a wayward child, or the brother, sister or parent who has done something hurtful or unjust towards some member of the family.)

God knows me. Do I know Him? Am I expecting someone else to take care of the problems, or am I being called to be the solution?

Heavenly Father, You are patient, kind, all knowing and all loving. I know that I fail you in many ways by choosing what I think is right for me, better for another, or best for the world. Help me to know you, to seek you and to serve you in Your way, not mine. Teach me how it is that you want me to love. Help me to forgive and to find the good in others. Thank you for allowing me to see Your love especially when I am not loved for trying to follow You.  Amen.

To know Him is to love Him. He knows (loves) us regardless of what we do or have done. Do we know (love) Him and do we allow Him to forgive, know and love us? And do we love and forgive others AS He does for us?

Strive for patience, kindness, understanding and humility. Love may not always FEEL good, but LOVE never fails.

Blessings,

Charlotte

On Your Mark, Get Set, Get Ready

Friends of Faith:

Am I chosen OR am I ready to be chosen?

“I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel.” Rv 7: 4

Many of us have read this passage and probably wondered like I have what I could possibly do to be a part of the “chosen” 144,000, knowing as I know myself that this number over the last 2015 years is minutely small – a sliver of all of the Christian people that have come and gone, and in humility, without trying to fool myself, honestly knowing that I am not even close to being or becoming holy enough to being ONE of only 144,000.

So why do I, and should we, continue to seek holiness, to be Christlike, and to live for God? Why do I continue to strive to achieve heaven when at times it can appear to be so unachievable? Why do I have hope? Because this verse is followed by this passage:

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.” Rv 7: 9-14

God may have only “marked” 144,000 but he has left the door open for all those who in hope seek his mercy; for those who in perseverance and patience seek to know Him and to do His will; and for those who remain faithful to Him despite temptation, persecution, sufferings and sorrows.

This passage is not about a few, about being “gifted or chosen,” this passage is about being prepared, about hope and mercy and about a lifelong journey towards God. For only God will know whether I am ready and whether I have done what it is that he has called me to do. My job is to be willing and to be humbly ready to lay down my life for Him so that I never feel too “chosen” or so “privileged” that I fail to do the one and only job he calls me to do – to love everyone else as unconditionally as He loves me.

Lord, we are a people that long to see your face. Help me to be ready to do your will, to stand against evil and to desire what is not vain. Help me to seek to know and acknowledge all that I have been blessed with, to be in your presence every hour of every day, and to be ready when I am called. Thank you for your patience and your mercy. It is through my hope in you that I find peace and joy. To all may there be blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might to our God forever and ever. Amen. (From Ps 24)

So I strive to give up my prideful ways and my desire for earthly belongings and in humility to become “marked” by a ready willingness and an eternal hopefulness that through His grace and blessings I will be chosen BECAUSE I was ready AND willing to do His will: in love, with love, by love and for His love.

So on your mark, get set, get ready – Love – because God awaits,

Blessings,

Charlotte

Humbly Accepted

Friends of Faith:

I am sometimes confused by what it means to be humble—does that mean that I am to always remember that I am a sinner and that I can do nothing right, or that nothing that I do is quite “right enough?” And does it really mean I have to give up everything or can I keep some of my “favorite things?”

Everything I have, even my most basic needs, are God given gifts. So, which parts of my life did God give me as a gift so that I could survive, and which parts did he give me so that I would be able to serve others? And why does sorting through that question seem so difficult?

Although I heard the same gospel readings multiple times this past weekend it struck me that each time the description of humility included the word “acceptance.”

Acceptance of my weaknesses and my faults but with a firm resolve to try to do better; acceptance of the “critical analysis” which friends give me to help make me better and an accepting attitude that it is my will, my resolve and my perseverance that will convert ME to be the daughter of God that God created me to be--in His image.

Everything I have is His and I could have done nothing that I have done without Him. It is with great humility that I REALIZE just how much God has already given me AND that He has a purpose for not only everything but every person he has placed in my life.

Without Him I would have nothing. Without His grace to bless my decisions nothing that I do would make a difference. And it His grace that takes and makes whatever it is I do in His name into something that makes others feel His very presence in their lives.

Humility isn’t about how I see myself or even more importantly it isn’t about how others see me. But rather humility is the grace to choose to do God’s will and to accept my weakness in needing His power to make what I do acceptable to Him.

He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” …blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Lk 14: 7-14

Do I look and act like the person HE made—because I am created in His image, shouldn’t I do whatever it is that I am doing in the same way God would? Do I use and share the gifts that HE gave me in the way he expected I would use them? Do you?

Are my priorities the same priorities he would have chosen for me? What has He given me that I am trying to keep for myself instead of sharing it with others (time, talent or treasure)?

Do I willing accept the sacrifice of hard work or a suffering of discipline, or do I keep trying to find a shortcut, pain relief, or a way to make His work more politically correct so that I can have social gain, instead of heavenly gain?

Do I find excuses so that I can do what I want to do instead of taking the time to do what God wants me to do? Am I willing to walk the same path He did, choosing to be with the least, and putting others needs ahead of mine?

Or am I expecting something in return when I give up my place at the table?

Heavenly Father, When you sent the Angel Gabriel to Mary to announce that she would be the Mother of Your son, Jesus, “Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1: 38) Give me the grace to imitate both her humbleness and her acceptance of the gifts and the sacrifices that must be made because of those very gifts. As she thanked you for her son, Jesus, Your Son, so I thank you for the gifts of my family. As she sacrificed and gave everything back to you, help me to humbly accept all that You ask me to give back to you. In your name, Amen.

All of the earthly riches around me weren’t created for me to live happily, or have a greater place at the table. The gifts we each have been given are for us to use to joyfully help others see God, thru us, and thru our own willingness to give EVERYTHING for them regardless of their ability to pay us back for what we have given or given up.

Are we giving enough? Could we give more? What are we “expecting” in return?

Mary (and Joseph) and Jesus: we were all created in Gods image, with the Holy Family as our living example. Can we be as humble and accepting of the truth, of the way, and of the life as they were?

It’s a journey…..humbly accepted,

In Christ,

Charlotte

With Humility

Women of Faith:

Someone (aka God) has been telling me to be humble. I say this because anytime the same message “shouts” out to me during the week I know that it is not just a coincidence, but a God incidence. HE is trying to get through to me about something.

Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with these words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 5:3

He could just as easily have said: blessed are the humble, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

I may think I deserve acknowledgment for what I have done, but is what I have done really as important as I think it is? And really, the only person that I should be trying to impress is God himself. And I’m pretty sure I am not as perfect as his image—the image that I have been created to be.

Praise God. Often heard, but not often enough done.

Praise (insert your name). While it may not be often heard, it is something many of us often receive and even more often many of us expect to receive.

But praise in itself should be humbling. What I achieve is not from my making, nor do I make good things happen. Everything I do, everything I achieve comes from God. Because with God, all things are possible.

And likewise a reward should not to be expected, or asked for. I shouldn’t “do good” so that I will receive something in return. I should instead “do good” because God created me to be capable of doing good and our God given purpose is to love, through service of one another, as He has served (loved) us.

And humility makes me teachable, changeable, and ready to be formed by God’s messages. Only in humility will I be willing and able to accept and change as He wants me to change. If I act as if I know it all, then why would anyone, including God, bother to teach me the valuable lessons that living life here on earth is all about?

So let me be like—
Mary. With deep humility she received from the Angel Gabriel the news that she was about to be the Mother of God’s Son. She accepted the challenge (and in those days, death by stoning was the fate of an unwed mother). She didn’t shout from the mountain top that Christ was coming. She didn’t broadcast her obvious holiness. And she certainly didn’t expect to receive any reward for the work of being a mother and even more so the suffering she would have to undergo when her son was hung to death on the cross.

She simply accepted. She humbly said “why me, I am not worthy.” She allowed herself to be formed by God.

The Three Wise Men. Thank God they were humble. They silently adored. But their faith, their wisdom was sharp enough to detect the sham delight and murderous intentions of the wily Herod. And so they paid their respects, left their gifts, and modestly departed for their homeland, sorrowfully aware of the terrible price justice had to pay for peace.

Jesus.  As always, God’s son is our greatest example: born in a stable. Humble enough to lay with the animals in a smelly manager. And yet he was the greatest human, ever born. He was the greatest of all kings. He deserved more than anything we could ever imagine or begin to deserve.

Heavenly Father, To You I Give all Praise and all Glory. In your name I pray this: A Prayer for Humility:
O Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved, deliver me Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled , Deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being approved, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being despised, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being calumniated (falsely accused), deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me Jesus
That others may be loved more than I. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease.  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. Amen.

 With all humility, seek to find what God is calling you to do this week for someone else,

And may your reward be with God,

Charlotte