A Sunday Morning Thought to Start the Week Off Right
We had a pretty big snow storm Friday into Saturday. Where I live in New York didn't get as much snow - maybe 8 - 10 inches as where one of my brothers lives in New England, where they had a historic storm with over two feet of accumulations.
While our snow is nothing to sneeze at and did require us to put our backs into shoveling (lacking a snow blower), the predictions for a real "blizzard" didn't quite materialize. The weather forecasts called for an extended period of high winds with gusts up to 50 mph. We had some gusts over night, but I wouldn't call it a blizzard by any means. You can't always count on these forecasts. In the same way, you shouldn't fret over the dire predictions some people make about our troubled world.
If you take forecasts and predictions too much to heart, you can live in a state of semi-fear most of your life. It's worse if you let your imagination run wild. Do you do this? I have at times. At times I've thought of our troubled world and imagined what things might be like if they continue the way they have in the past. Most recently, the government's attack on our religious freedom could provide lots of fodder for this sort of imaginative thinking. I can just about picture us Catholics being commanded to burn incense to the secular Contraception/Abortion god somewhat like the early Christians were forced to burn incense to the Roman gods - or else.
Anyway, it all reminds me of the importance to live in the present moment, and rely on God. The future isn't here and now, and the here and now is where we live each moment. If we can't control our imaginations, we're not really living as God intended us to live. You can't love and serve God if you're always thinking about what might happen someday.
I'll have more to say about this during the week, but for now it's time get back to this Sunday, another gift God has given me to live in His Holy Service. Will I succeed in loving Him as I should? Only if I quell my imagination and remain in the here and now throughout this Sabbath day, this day of rest, this one day of the week devoted exclusively to God. The Lord's Day is here and now. Remember: Keep holy the Lord's Day.
While our snow is nothing to sneeze at and did require us to put our backs into shoveling (lacking a snow blower), the predictions for a real "blizzard" didn't quite materialize. The weather forecasts called for an extended period of high winds with gusts up to 50 mph. We had some gusts over night, but I wouldn't call it a blizzard by any means. You can't always count on these forecasts. In the same way, you shouldn't fret over the dire predictions some people make about our troubled world.
If you take forecasts and predictions too much to heart, you can live in a state of semi-fear most of your life. It's worse if you let your imagination run wild. Do you do this? I have at times. At times I've thought of our troubled world and imagined what things might be like if they continue the way they have in the past. Most recently, the government's attack on our religious freedom could provide lots of fodder for this sort of imaginative thinking. I can just about picture us Catholics being commanded to burn incense to the secular Contraception/Abortion god somewhat like the early Christians were forced to burn incense to the Roman gods - or else.
Anyway, it all reminds me of the importance to live in the present moment, and rely on God. The future isn't here and now, and the here and now is where we live each moment. If we can't control our imaginations, we're not really living as God intended us to live. You can't love and serve God if you're always thinking about what might happen someday.
I'll have more to say about this during the week, but for now it's time get back to this Sunday, another gift God has given me to live in His Holy Service. Will I succeed in loving Him as I should? Only if I quell my imagination and remain in the here and now throughout this Sabbath day, this day of rest, this one day of the week devoted exclusively to God. The Lord's Day is here and now. Remember: Keep holy the Lord's Day.
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