When does life actually begin? Now!

This is Day 4 of Father Kentenich's 9 Days of Prayer for Young People booklet. I am on this track of reading all my devotionals/pamphlets which I got from SYDNEY.... this is just 1 of them. Typing this out now coz it just relates to me so well now. NOW.

NOW!

Sometimes life simply carries me away. I squander the time, today this, tomorrow that.
Miscalculating, totally chaotic, just plain stressed.

When does life actually begin – my life? Now!

Father Kentenich didn’t play games. Right away in his first talk on October 27, 1912, he challenged the students by suggesting to them a clear goal for their common task: “Under the protection of Mary, we want to learn to educate ourselves to become firm, free, priestly personalities.”

It was important to him that the boys started at once to live as new persons – not sometime later, perhaps when the conditions were more favourable – but today! (The rules of the boarding school were very strict and allowed only minimal free reign). Begin today to be a Christian who loves God-given freedom and also uses it in order to realize great goals. Take life in hand responsibly here and now. And how is that done? Very simply: “You learn to walk by walking, to love by loving…” I will become a free person when I practice making independent, free decisions – every day, every hour. With this program Father Kentenich touched the core of a young person.

He could not change the exterior conditions in the boarding school, but he helped change the inner attitude: I do not allow myself to be lived, but I live – now!

Even the smallest everyday decision that I consciously make strengthens my personality and allows me to blossom. A wrong decision is better than no decision at all, because every decision releases energies and connects me with the best in me.

“And after we make a decision, we follow through with that to which we said yes.” J. Kentenich

I become the person I really am.

The closeness of Mary, Mother of God, the woman who freely decided for God, ensures greater determination and consistency.

Father in heaven, help me live my life, to become a person who rejoices in making decisions. Don’t let me wait for the favourable moment, the great change in my life, but use the moment that is offered to me to shape my life. Grant me the experience that Father Kentenich and his students had in the covenant with Mary: A new and great life is beginning as I try to give you joy here and now. Amen.

A concrete point for the day:
Specifically in daily life:
- Training for daily decision making: Conquer myself in one concrete point and choose the better!
- I do not say yes if I actually want to say no. And I don’t allow myself to feel guilty.
- Before making a decision: reflect – pray – wait a little – then decide for that to which my heart draws me

For the Love of Jesus...

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

LOVE OF JESUS

They say, Love is a Game. or some people also say, Love Hurts..

We say, we love Jesus. But sometimes we also play a Love-Game with Jesus. We know He loves us, yet we don't always love Him back all the time. We stop short, because we also love the world and we love to play the game... we make it so hard for Jesus to love us. We walk away. We sin. We turn away.

And when things don't go well, we hurt, and we close up. Now the Love of Jesus then bounces off our hardened exteriors - and at the same time, we hurt inside, lamenting that we don't see God around, that we are hurt, that we are in pain.

We are funny creatures.

And I say this because I play the love-game too. I love Jesus... sometimes... I love myself... more. It's sometimes so hard to grasp what is that AGAPE LOVE (Godly Love) that we as christians are called to live. That life of love, giving, service, other-mindedness, care, concern for others... and ultimate sacrifice of our lives for our lover... JESUS...

How do we understand this?

It's not easy. Only when we have experienced that First Love, that "connection" with Jesus.

How? We need to search for it. Can You See God in everything you do? Can you find God's Love as the fuel that motivates your every action?

Let us journey together to find this everlasting love... this wonderful love that we can only find in Jesus alone.

Read a cool article here: http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001607.cfm

God has boundaries too!

Was reading this chapter from "Boundaries" by Dr Henry Cloud & Dr John Townsend and it kinda struck me in a way. God TOO has his own boundaries... sometimes, we abuse it! It's interesting. I never saw it in this light before!

Read this little excerpt:

God wants us to respect his boundaries; he doesn’t want us to withdraw our love when he says no. But he has nothing at all against our trying to persuade him to change his mind. In fact, he asks for us to be tenacious. Often he says, “Wait,” seeing how much we really want something. Other times, it seems he changes his mind as a result of our relationship with him. Either way, we respect his wishes and stay in relationship.

Respecting His Own

In addition to our respecting God’s boundaries and his respecting ours, he is a good model for how we should respect our own property.

God is the ultimate responsibility taker. If someone else causes him pain, he takes responsibility for it. If we continue to abuse him, he is not masochistic; he will take care of himself. And for our own sakes, we do not want to suffer the consequences of his boundaries.

The parable of the wedding banquet shows us God taking responsibility (Matt. 22:1-14). A king who was planning a banquet invited many people to come. When they said no, he pleaded with them. They continued to say no and went about their own business. Finally, the king had had enough. Taking responsibility for the situation, he said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find” (vv. 8-9).

Whenever God decides that “enough is enough,” and he has suffered long enough, he respects his own property, his heart, enough to do something to make it better. He takes responsibility for the pain and makes moves to make his life different. He lets go of the rejecting people and reaches out to some new friends.

God is a good model. When we are hurting, we need to take responsibility for the hurt and make some appropriate moves to make things better. This may mean letting go of someone and finding new friends. It may mean forgiving someone and letting them off the hook so we can feel better.