At one time I wondered where God was. There were so many things going wrong w/ me and my spouse (cancer, neurological disease, degenerative bone disorder, etc.), and God seemed far away.
One day, on the way up to Communion, it hit me. It was a “Duh” moment for sure. I was wondering where God was, and, as usual, he was there in the Eucharist, waiting for me to realize it again. It was amazing how calming truly knowing it was. I actually smiled on the way up, realizing how stupid I’d been. I could have told you all about the Eucharist, of course, by my emotions were getting in the way of really knowing the truth about the Eucharist.
God is always waiting for us, and is never far from us. We just forget, while we’re wrapped up in ourselves, in our emotions, that God is where he always was.
God is patient, and he never turns away from us. IMO, when we have doubts, it’s not because we’re learning something new, but because we have forgotten what we used to know.
Kirk Cameron, though he is sincere, can’t offer anything to compare to the Eucharist.
I think Kirk Cameron was a wild as a teen and young adult, and found a way of controlling himself in a OSAS religion of exclusion (the saved vs the damned). He didn’t seem to have adequate self-control before finding his new religion. It works for him. I’ve seen many people who were drug addicts, sexually loose, gamblers, or alcoholics find solace in a OSAS type religion. It’s the assurance they need to keep going. It seems that they can’t handle the fact that they have to “pesevere to the end”. They seem to need an answer to the future, today. The offer of Salvation isn’t enough for them. They have to know that they are OSAS. Without that, they say, they would revert to their old ways. Knowing for sure that they are OSAS, they say, is how they can stay on the right path. If they didn’t know for sure, they would fall back into their old ways. IMO,they don’t trust God or themselves. It’s as if they’re afraid that if they don’t get the deal sealed and in writing now, God will rescind his offer, or they will fail to hold up their end of the deal. Ironically, though they say that OSAS is evidence that they have true faith in Jesus, it’s the opposite. They are so fearful about their salvation that they want to seal the deal now. They don’t have confidence in God’s offer of salvation. They are full of anxiety over the knowledge that they might mess up again. If they know that they are OSAS no matter how much they mess up, they can relax. Once they have the assurance of acceptance into Heaven, the fear is gone, and they actually behave better. This isn’t confidence in God’s promise. This is distrust. They can’t trust Jesus. They want a definite answer NOW. They want the pay check before they’ve finished the job, because they’re afraid the boss will find too much fault in their perfomance and won’t pay them in the end. IMO, OSAS, is all about fear and doubt, not about faith and confidence.
The Duggers. Aren’t they the ones who dress their daughters in “modesty suits” to swim, and whose sons are forced to look at the ground when passing women that don’t meet the approval of the parents? They have a code word that the girls say whenever a woman of that sort is approaching, and the boys are supposed to look at the ground (or away?) until the woman passes. These are the people who don’t let their toddlers dance to the tunes on musical baby toys
God knows what He is doing, all you have to do is trust that He gave us a way to know the truth with certainty. And that is through the Catholic Church, the pillar and foundation of the truth. As St. Augustine wisely put it: “Believe so that you may understand.”