The Remedy to Frustration & Anger

The way we treat others must not be dependent on who they are, their status and amount of earthly possessions; neither should it be dependent on what they have done or have not done, on how good or bad they are, on how they treat us or on their character. If the way we treat others is a response of reaction to their own attitudes and behaviour, then there is no need for anyone to do any good to anyone; after all, are we not all sinners alike?

If God were to treat us according to who we truly are and according to the thoughts, words and deeds we do, will we not already be struck down, condemned? Are we not all unworthy and incompletely repentant? Yet, God loves us freely, completely, infinitely. He chose to love us while being fully aware of our every flaw and evil in our hearts. What reason, then can we use to justify our unwillingness to be patient at another's weakness? God sees beyond our weaknesses and sinfulness to gaze on the image and likeness of Himself that He created us in, in the continuous hope that we will one day truly make the determined decision to turn back to Him wholeheartedly. In hope and patience, He waits for us.

If we always focus on the flaws of others, we will forget that they too have the capacity to be good people. Our capacity to love is far greater than human's capacity to sin. This is rightly so since God, the origin and source of love is infinitely greater and more powerful than the prince of darkness, the origin of sin.

Therefore, we must practice daily the recognition of the Truth about God's Creation - that every human person is called to holiness and have the capacity to lead holy lives. Yes, people fall short like ourselves but how would we know that they are not like us, striving to become better people too, or that they have truly had a very painful life experience that they themselves are struggling to cope with? To love like Jesus, to imitate Christ more fully, is to focus our thoughts on the goodness of people so that our minds are far too preoccupied for useless and frustrating thoughts of their minor flaws; our hearts will also be preoccupied with hope and love that there is no room for irritation and anger.

Take an empty cup. 1/2 cup of anger leaves only 1/2 cup of space for love
Likewise, 1/2 cup of love makes room for 1/2 cup of anger
1 cup of anger leaves absolutely zero space for love
Alternatively, 1 cup of love makes no possibly entry of any anger or resentment, jealousy or malice. And then, with love, there are also peace and joy.
Thus, it is up to us how we want to fill the space in our hearts, what we want to fill it with and in what proportions.

13 February 2011, Sunday
4.57pm

The Purpose of Each New Day - Growth

We live day to day without much thought, taking everything as they come, discerning very little and letting our emotions go with the flow of life's ups and downs. Yet, if we pause to think deeper and ask ourselves what is the purpose of living each new day, we may come to discover that life is quite meaningless as it seems. Why did God not just give us one day, one week or one year to live but many years for most of us? Why does He make the Sun rise each day along with our waking each morning? 

If the next day is going to be just the same as today, then what is the point of living this another day? If the next day needs no new things to be done, deeper levels of loving and serving others, more rooted love for God and stronger union with His love for us as today, then it means we have already accomplished the full purpose of our lives today and there is no need for tomorrow. I would like to believe that God has given us "tomorrow", yet another day, so that we can continue to walk towards the perfection of His love for us, made complete by our spreading of this love to others in the same selfless and sacrificial ways that Jesus Himself was an example of. 

If He never meant for us to grow daily, why would He then give us trials and failures, sufferings and pain? Even our physical bodies have to grow daily, our mental capacity develops as we study and read. If people say that "learning" is lifelong, what more the growth of our spiritual lives and our relationship with God, which are what truly matters in the life that awaits us at our death. If tomorrow is not going to be a day we decide and conscientiously make the extra effort to love more deeply, serve more selflessly and walk more closely in the footsteps of our Lord, Jesus Christ, then we may as well not live past tonight for tomorrow will be another wasted day, useless and brings about nothing better for ourselves and those around us. If we decide to be stagnant everyday by our indecisiveness for a more Christ-centred tomorrow, then we become like most people - lifeless, restless, tired, purposeless, hopeless, dull, boring and like a zombie walking the surface of the earth. We can never be filled with purpose, fulfilment, joy, peace, excitement, anticipation - all which makes us truly alive and living. 

We can only know how to live in more Christ-centred ways "tomorrow" if we know how we have and have not lived like Christ "today"; only then can we know what we have done good and what we need to improve on. If we never had to sit for examinations, how would we know which subjects we are good at, which we are not, which topics we are stronger in and which topics we need to revise more thoroughly and work harder at? Similarly, if we do not examine our lives daily, especially at the end of each day, do an honest evaluation of the way we have lived the day, how would we know what to put more effort in the next day? 

Let us pray that God will guide us each day to take more seriously every day that He gives to us, making full meaning of this life He has given to us so that we may come to know Him more intimately, love Him more deeply and follow Him more closely and in this manner, be filled with the peace, hope, love and joy that God promises us if we take Him to be the centre of our lives. 

12 February 2011, Saturday

11.04am

Perfection

By Sr. Kathryn J. Hermes, F.S.P.

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"I am grateful I learned early on through serious illness that real "perfection" comes through suffering:

through darkness faced, disaster overcome, and temptation endured. 

When one has been taken apart and rebuilt through this process, then "perfection" does roll off our fingers:

a perfection that is received. 

I don't need to achieve or accomplish anything to be perfect. 

I only need to surrender to what God is doing in me and through me in the world. 

It may look "perfect" according to others, or it may appear a complete disaster as did the crucifixion of Jesus. 

In either case, as long as God is glorified, it is perfectly fine with me."

11 February 2011, Friday

11.59am

The Best Gift - Holy Spirit

If God could give us anything better, He would have certainly done so; 
Yet, He gave us His Holy Spirit. 
And rightly so, so as to fulfil His title of the God of Divine Providence. 
The Holy Spirit guides us, 
nourishes us, 
teaches us, 
leads us, 
directs us,
transforms us,
moves our hardened hearts,
uses us for God's greater glory, 
protects us,
moulds us,
empowers us,
opens the eyes of our minds to understand God's word, which then nourishes us, 
opens our lips so that we may share the love, peace, hope and joy we have found in Christ, 
opens the doors of our hearts to love God more deeply and faithfully. 
The Holy Spirit influences us to re-prioritise the many aspects of our lives with the recognition that only God matters.   
We are influenced to lead our lives more fully in God's ways as He reveals to us slowly but surely who God truly is.
Through the Holy Spirit, we find God, who is no longer abstract or distant from us but real and concrete. 
He directs our perception into the realisation of the deeper meaning of life. 
Through these, our lives are transformed and we begin to truly live life meaningfully, purposefully; we reap the fruits of fulfilment, peace, joy and hope that God promised us as we become united with His Will for us. 
In giving us the Holy Spirit, God has given us the very best; no other gift can be better. Because in giving us the Holy Spirit, God is giving us Himself and God is LIFE; anyone who believes in this truth, and welcomes and invites the Holy Spirit into his life will receive God Himself, who is our key to a life truly worth living. 


07 February 2011, Monday
10.04pm