Freedom

“Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1738)

 In 2013, we find our society drowning in a quagmire of lies, deceit, immorality and destruction.  Satan targets us from all angles: our political beliefs, our daily lives and most importantly our faith.  We must never forget we are children of God.  We were created to do good, to love our neighbor (who lives next to us and who lives across the world), to be responsible citizens of earth.

We must never forget that.  Thank you to all of our veterans who signed on the dotted line to protect our freedoms in America.  For it is under the Flag that they proudly serve.  “I pledge allegiance, to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Pruning

Hacking tree limbs.  That’s what I did today and a fair part of yesterday.  Known as “pruning” for the gardening elite.  However when you are “pruning” fifteen or so 12-foot trees down to approximately 6 feet in height, it’s more like hacking!  Have you ever used the roof of your car as a ladder?  Picture this: lining up your car perfectly next to a maple that is just getting a little too friendly with the wires overhead.  Now you make sure that when you hack off the offending limb it doesn’t take down the wires or damage your car…that WOULD end rather badly! Did I mention I use my Grandpa’s old hand saw and not a wimpy chain saw?  My right hand has a beautiful shade of ultramarine blue spreading over the knuckles, no pain, just a “lovely” bruise!

So all this elimination of dead weight got me thinking.  I’ve done a lot of pruning in my life in recent years as well.  From losing weight, trimming food choices, saying good-bye to toxic relationships, eliminating frivolous bills like excess cable and a landline phone.  But the most important pruning I’ve worked on is the stripping away of secular society’s ideas of what I should be doing with my life.  I’ve replaced it with what God calls me to do each and every day.  That is...when I listen and put it into action! 

You know what I mean…that gut reaction of knowing what you are supposed to do and not wanting to do it because you have your own idea of what is best.  So you “do your own thing” and WHAM!  Something, somewhere, somehow gets messed up.  Then you kick yourself for not listening to your “gut” to begin with!  Welcome to my life!  Chances are it’s your life too!  Well we are both in good hands because God is well aware of our weaknesses and our failings and he’s going to catch us when we fall.  We have to allow him to catch us and be willing to accept the responsibility of our actions and then prune them in the greatest way possible, through reconciliation.  This is the absolute pruning that will lift away the weight of the world.  When I added monthly reconciliation into my life it was the best move I ever made.  It stripped me down, exposed my wounds and pruned the sins off my soul, preventing them from taking root and growing to a point of needing to be hacked off.  Thanks to pruning, I’m in a much better place than I was before…as are my trees.

What are your gifts?

So what are your God-given gifts?  You know, those things you are really good at whether or not you like to admit it.  Maybe it has to do with nourishing others with good food you prepare…maybe it is nourishing others with your faith.  Have you dug them up and embraced them yet?

For some, the gifts are obvious.  The ability to sing (which I most CERTAINLY was not gifted with…I have the perfect singing voice for silent movies!); to fly a plane; to have a sense of how to work with difficult personalities and temperaments; to be a mediator…the list is endless.

In my vocation as artist, I find that I have been graced with the gift of creativity.  When I use that gift that comes from God to bring joy, comfort, peace to others, I am spreading the Light of Christ.  I am obligated to use that gift to do God’s will.  When I am teaching in my classroom, it is through the gift of teaching and the gift of compassion that I must bring each student in my care, to the love of Christ.  I am the conduit between the student and God.  Through my obedient example, in my thoughts, words and actions, I am in a position to bring Christ and His message to each person in my classroom.  Numerous times I have struggled with wanting to leave the profession of teaching high school, but each and every time I entertain that thought, the Holy Spirit comes to me through a thought, a person or some other means of communication, urging me to stay “in the mine field” for the “harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2)

Where are you on your journey to embrace the gifts you’ve been given by God?  Are you well on your way of sharing with others?  Or are you still holding the shovel, trying to dig up just what you are supposed to be doing?