All you need is LOVE
…and
as many clichés as you can get your hands on…
I wrote the following
when I was finishing up my senior year in high school. I wanted to share it, because
although a couple of the particulars may be different for each of us, I feel that it projects
how a lot of us feel sometimes. Life is hard: it can be tiring and challenging.
So count your blessings and thank the Good Lord for all He does for you and
never stop reaching to fulfill the Universal Vocation we all have: a Call to Holiness. If you do that, if you never stop
trying to be Holy, if you keep hope that you can one day be a Saint, one in
Heaven with God, you’ll never fail.
What beauty there is in that! Hold fast and have hope. Some of this may sound cliché,
I’ll admit it. But, sometimes, we need a dose of cliché, Amen?
I am in love. I am weak. I am strong. I am proud of what I
am. Jesus has made me whole. He fills me with his love. All I need to do is
remember to turn to him in my times of need. When I have given all of His love
out and need refilling. When I do not know which way to turn, I need to evoke
the wisdom and strength of the Most Holy Spirit.
What makes it hard: I am so tired. I am very stressed out.
Right now I am simply exhausted and ready to give up. I want to throw up my
white flag and surrender so badly. I am afraid of what will happen if I keep
going. But, what will happen? Will I love and be loved? Will I find the TRUE
happiness that I have always longed for? Why is that so hard to accept? It is
hard because it is not what the world has taught me. It is not what my parents
really taught me. It is not what I have taught myself. I have gone all my life
knowing what I will do. I will go to school and get a Ph.D. and I will be
comfortable financially and I will go on mission trips and at some point I will
get married and have children. I have had a lot of goals in my life. They have
slowly morphed in my life into different images, ideas, and happenings. There
are few things that have remained consistent. All I know that I want to
do is serve Jesus. That would be my ideal situation. It has not been until
recently that I wanted to do that. Well, at least since I wanted to truly
do that. I thought I did. But I wasn’t doing what He wanted for me. I was
chugging along waiting for a miracle that will never come, and it shouldn’t. It
shouldn’t come, because that is not what I need to do to serve the Lord. I need
to grow. I need to grow my patience, grow my spirit, and grow in His love. That
is the only thing I am really, really, sure of. I am sure he wants me to love.
What better way to do that than to raise children in His love? Than to bring
children into a world that often gets distorted views of what is right and what
is wrong, and allows people to fall into a secular religion, and lead them away
from that. Lead them into the love of God. Allow them to come to know happiness
beyond compare in the stronghold of Christ. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? So for
now, I don’t know what tomorrow brings. What I do know, is that I love Jesus,
my Lord and Savior. I know that I want the Holy Spirit to envelop me with its
wisdom, courage, and love. I do know that I am thankful to God for putting so
many options at my disposal to toil over. I am just thankful. How could I not
be? Life may be hard, but I have more to say thank you for than I could ever
say now; but I will try. Thank you, Lord, for love. For the love of a family.
For the love of friends. For the intimate love, Lord that you have blessed my
life with so abundantly. I ask you to let me love all who love me with your
grace every day. Allow me to be transparent with Your love, so that we may
glorify you. I thank you, Jesus, for dying; but more than that, Jesus, I thank
you for living in me every day through the power of Your Spirit. THANK YOU,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
