Jesus - Being open to whatever the road brings our way

[BarbaraTherese]

My comment: I really liked this article.
There is that “mindset” that in the journey of life and in the minor and major matters that do come our way in any day, that views them not as random incidents or circumstances, but something that Jesus is asking us in particular to address in our day in some way or other and hence of value and importance.
A comment by a declared “control freak”

Extract only from article on this link:

"…This year, on the other side of Pentecost, the Christian community falls into stride with Matthew’s Gospel. Wise heads have observed that Luke’s Gospel has a focus on hospitality; Matthew’s has a focus on the road. For Sunday after Sunday, we will encounter Jesus as he encounters the great passing parade, the mixed bag of humanity which he loved with all its funny colours and shades.

On the first Sunday of winter, we’ll hear the story of the twit who built his house on sand; it only took one storm to knock it over. The following week, people have a go at Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus, with that customary smile in his voice, says, ‘it’s not the healthy who need the doctor’. Next we meet Jesus feeling sorry for the crowds because ‘they were like sheep without a shepherd’. Then Jesus tells his friends not to be afraid but to proclaim loudly what he tells them in whispers.

The week after, Jesus says ‘anyone who welcomes you, welcomes the one who sent you’. After that, Jesus thanks God for making things clear to little children when they eluded the learned and the clever. What we call ordinary time is never that ordinary. It could be called colourful time.

All these stories share a great appetite for life in all its simple complexity. They show that Jesus was anything but a control freak; he was open to whatever the road brought his way. He was constantly drawing life from friends and strangers.

He gave his life because he loved life, not because he feared it.

"

 

[Trishie]

Yes, a delightful and insightful article. Thanks for sharing it, Barb.
And you’re right, so often we do feel that opportunities God offers in our path are challenges that maybe get in the way of the real tasks…and sometimes we’re wrong, and we only realise that fully when we’ve left it behind us, and the bridge back is already washed away. But yes, they were important, and part of God’s gift to us and sometimes others.

May God still find ways to send back blessing and grace. May God continue to write straight with crooked lines. May He help us to welcome each new gift in our ordinary daily lives.

Thanks Barb. Trishie

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Yes, a delightful and insightful article. Thanks for sharing it, Barb.
And you’re right, so often we do feel that opportunities God offers in our path are challenges that maybe get in the way of the real tasks…and sometimes we’re wrong, and we only realise that fully when we’ve left it behind us, and the bridge back is already washed away. But yes, they were important, and part of God’s gift to us and sometimes others.

May God still find ways to send back blessing and grace. May God continue to write straight with crooked lines. May He help us to welcome each new gift in our ordinary daily lives.

Thanks Barb. Trishie

… …
Deo Gratius!

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Sometimes we can look back and regret some action or decision, but the only real wrong is sin. Hence if we do look back with some sort of regret, if it is not sinful there is no need for that regret. For God does indeed write straight with a crooked line.
And even if I look back to sin in my past, there is no need for regrets here either for if I have repented of my past sin and confessed in the case of mortal sin, then my call is to walk on in humble forgetfulness of my past. For God not only forgives, He forgets. “Go thou and do likewise”.
There can be of course (common sense should always be applied) that healthy looking back in renewed sorrow for past sin, but one only visits this holy renewed sorrow…one does not set up camp there for this would be spiritually unhealthy and an invitation to discouragement and sadness, lack of Peace and Joy. In holy renewed sorrow, it is a cause for much Peace and Joy and thankfulness and praise of God’s Loving Eternal Mercy.

All we have is this moment and if blest, I have this day. The past can live only in memory and is simply a memory and the future is not ours to know. So whatever God puts on our plate today and in this moment, or the road may bring us today and in this moment, is what it is all about.
Our life to date is the sum total of all our “eternal now’s”.

Barb

 

[Eileen_T]

What, is this a thread for Aussies? Let’s open it to Kiwis as well.

'I often see junkies on the train and I think they are really not much different from me. Except for one thing. They are slaves to a different master.

AMEN!!!

As a wise priest once told us, we are the most sinful person we know, because we only know what is in the depths of our own hearts. That is why we can’t/shouldn’t judge others.

How true.

I talk to young people who wonder if they have wasted training, education etc, when they change direction. I tell them that God has put every experience of my life to use in His service, in one way or other.

In Domino confido, in God I trust.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

What, is this a thread for Aussies? Let’s open it to Kiwis as well. AMEN!!!

As a wise priest once told us, we are the most sinful person we know, because we only know what is in the depths of our own hearts. That is why we can’t/shouldn’t judge others.

How true.

I talk to young people who wonder if they have wasted training, education etc, when they change direction. I tell them that God has put every experience of my life to use in His service, in one way or other.

In Domino confido, in God I trust.

I talk to young people who wonder if they have wasted training, education etc, when they change direction. I tell them that God has put every experience of my life to use in His service, in one way or other.

Ah well, since we owe charity to all regardless, Kiwis are included in this thread

Great observation above. It is now at 62 years that I can see all the ends I could not find, let alone put together, weaving into the one strand that is the journey of life. All now has meaning and reason. The why’s of matters at that point of occurance may seem complete mystery and of no benefit, that later, God Willing, the veil will be drawn and the reason and benefit sighted.

There may be events in the past that totally escape my understanding even now, but Faith tells me there is good and productive reason that I cannot sight and may never sight and I can rest in that weaving that into the one strand of my journey.

And a wonderful observation by the priest you quoted that I am indeed the most sinful person that I have ever known. I rather love that quotation from l Timothyj1:15 “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief”.

Thank you for a great Post Eileen…even if it did “come out of Nazareth!” …or a Kiwi!!! (joke! and LOL! in the total hope that you will too!)

Barb