Begin or Begin Again....

Matthew 21:22

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

Matthew 18:20

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

We can strengthen our faith when we focus on nurturing our connection with God through prayer, scripture study and seeking community support and serving others. Let’s do this together - all are welcome and encouraged to share stories of faith or challenges

-----------------------Today's not so original thoughts.----------------------

I will share more about my journey later, but today the focus is... Who do you want to be? What do you want to be true about yourself?

I have a daily routine where I listen to several sessions daily on the Hallow app. One of the sessions I have listened to over and over this week and want to share it with you because it is so much to really ponder as we move through life. The question of ...What do you want to be true about yourself has been taking most of the space in my head this week. I am in what I would call a 3+ year difficult journey and will be the first to admit I have not always handled the difficulties with grace - in fact I would say I mostly did not. So listening to the Sunday Homily over and over this week, as well as going to my own church hit home a bit. I want to share some of the Homily with you today.

Following Christ involves challenge - no one drifts into heaven any more than anyone drifts into any kind of greatness. The example was given of gifted athletes - they live differently to achieve greatness. They strive. Same with us, if you want to go to heaven, you strive. If you have the potential, you need to have the discipline. God believes we have what it takes so we are worth His time to train us. Discipline is not the point, but it is the path. The point is to live as the person God intended you to be. Potential without discipline is potential wasted. Concluding- if you do not know who you want to be or you have not achieved what you want to be true about yourself - then Begin or Begin again. Do it now. There were some examples given on discipline and striving or practicing to achieve the qualities you admire most in someone. Have to start now because "The chains in habits are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken". This has everything to do with Jesus - we are choosing to be someone right now and those choices become habits that are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. This is about being the kind of person that can look like Jesus - write the qualities of Jesus you want to be more like and write those down and begin to practice, or begin again. We walk the path of discipline to do the kinds of things Jesus would do. A definition was given of what it takes to be a disciple - so simple that everyone of us could start right now if we wanted to....

"A disciple is someone that is willing to change their schedule in order to get closer to Jesus". Perfection is not expected but you actually have to do it. How would you change your schedule tomorrow, this week or this month if you want to be closer to Jesus. Isn't this something to begin or begin again to be a disciple of Jesus. Thank you to Hallow and Father Mike for this meaningful Homily that was "written for me" and maybe you too.