I received this on Christmas Day and thought I would share
It is a good read.
December 25, 2014
A letter from Glenn:
Hello Everyone,
In the family torn apart by addiction, in the midst of tragedy, financial ruin, joblessness, loneliness, depression, sickness and any other inevitable heartache life brings, one question is asked more than any other: where is God?
The angry, sad, hurt, frustrated heart cries out: How can you just sit there, silently, and do nothing while the world burns? Where are you? It’s an understandable question. Anyone who mocks it or brushes it aside simply has yet to experience the heartache that brings them to their knees and compels their pleading, helpless eyes towards the heavens. But that time will come. It always comes. The old saying goes there’s only two things that are guaranteed in life: death & taxes. I’d like to amend that cliché and add suffering. Who among us has not experienced pain? It is an unrealistic expectation to sail through life without any trial or tribulation. No one in the history of planet earth has ever accomplished this feat, why should we expect to be the first?
Pain is an inevitable part of life, therefore we should not take lightly when someone is questioning God’s role in all of this. So how does God factor into all of this?
Many are putting God on trial, claiming He’s done nothing, is an absentee father.
That’s a heavy indictment. I realize that God is quite capable of fashioning His own defense, nevertheless, please allow me to take a moment and present the alibi. I contend that despite the sadness and pain in the world, He is absolutely there, and He is absolutely doing something. More than just something, something miraculous.
It’s Christmas, and lost in all the presents and commercialism it is easy to lose sight of the significance of what the baby Jesus all wrapped up in a manger actually means. The King of the universe, the Creator of all things, the Author of life, the first and the last, actually humbled himself and took on flesh to dwell among us is something to behold. Angels filled the sky singing praises. He was called Immanuel, God with us.
Truly a miracle, but that was just the beginning of this story. The angels celebrated the arrival of the baby, but the reason we celebrate thousands of years later has less to do with the birth of the baby and everything to do with the death and resurrection of the man. After rising from the grave, what did Jesus tell His disciples? “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”
He is with us always. Jesus promised to leave behind a helper and did so with the Holy Spirt. We don’t need help creating our best lives now, be super happy and never experience pain. No, help was sent to help us complete the job. Before he left, Jesus commissioned us to go, make disciples, and teach them to obey everything I commanded.
Everything He commanded. There’s a lot of commands. Visit the orphan & widow in their distress, help the poor and needy, comfort those who mourn, and most importantly love the Lord with all your soul & love others as yourself.
See, we’re really good at loving ourselves. We know how to do that one without thinking about it. We’re selfish. We need help to turn our focus around and into a life of service, where others needs are put ahead of our own.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where God is. In all of us. How does the world know about God? When we love one another, they will see Him.
This week at the ranch I saw God.He was at the local food bank, picking up a bag of popcorn balls and bringing joy to others who (just like him) can’t afford every meal. He was wearing a red shirt, red sweat pants, and a homemade Santa beard he had made from yarn. He’s at the food bank every Saturday and has been doing so for 12 years. He is a simple man who knows how to give away pallets of joy as if it just grew on trees. He was doing all of this while taking care of an orphaned child as his own.
God IS with us.
He is there for the widow.
He is there for the orphan.
The lonely hearted.
The hungry.
The tired.
The lost.
The sick.
Nothing? Oh, God has done something amazing. He created you, and me and billions of other human beings, the imperfect agents of His will. Each of us with the opportunity to make it abundantly clear that God is truly with us until the end of the age.
We won’t be perfect, but we can give those in the midst of suffering a teeny tiny glimpse of the glory that awaits in the next life. We can prove that God does indeed exist, cares, and is absolutely present in every aspect of every precious life.
You know in life there is always something being hyped up. That if we just had that thing that we would be complete. This happens on a personal level all the time. Me included.
When we go for a job, we try to get the job and we hype up our accomplishments to make us stand out as the obvious choice.
Another aspect of us humans is this aspect. We sometimes in our own personal lives see ourselves in a slightly different way than we really appear to others. We can be too blind and too close to be objective about what we broadcast out to the world.
My question then is this …. Do you believe your own HYPE?
I am always so careful in my present day life not to buy my own hype. I am always trying to look at myself honestly and being authentic in my approach to all of my encounters and endeavours.
I am who I am in this moment because God and life are forging what I am to become. I am a work in progress just as you all are.
I like just being me, in my current situation I am an under dog trying to find out what my new life has for me. No hype left just an opportunity to fight my way back physically which will allow me to find my new life path. I am waiting with such anticipation to see what door may open.
My new life will have a bit of my old life (interior design) and a new path that will be helping people. Helping the ill , talking of hope and God’s victory.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/hype
verb (used with object), hyped, hyping. 1. to stimulate, excite, or agitate (usually followed by up): She was hyped up at the thought of owning her own car. 2. to …
When you have almost lost everything, your life and everything material in nature the eyes of your Faith and the Spirit of God will bring us so much power and hope.There is NOTHING that we cannot do. If God is for us, then nothing will stop his plan for us to be successful for his glory . Amen ! 🙂
Ready , 🙂
MY Song 🙂 crank it !
This song states the attitude and where I am at. Thanks be to God ! 🙂
I truely believe animals are a special gift given to us to enhance our lives. They give company to the lonely, they are trained to help the handicapped . Pets teach children many life lessons and witness the unconditional love, kindness,and acceptance to their human friends.
Well, I am very sad this morning because last evening my black labby Jessica Louise took ill while sleeping next to my bed. It was 12:30 am and my wife and I heard a noise and my wife jumped out of bed and ran around the foot of the bed to see what was wrong and I dropped my good hand down to her and said what’s wrong honey as I rubbed her head.And she looked up at my face and I knew that her nearly 14 years of life had caught up to her. She was labored in breathing, and could not stand up.
Fortunately for me my son was up writing a paper and my future son and law was over watching a movie with my daughter so they got Jessy into the car. My wife ,myself and my son went to the urgent care animal hospital in Woburn and it was confirmed that she had a stoke of some sort so we had to put her to sleep. It was heart breaking.
Like I said to the Dr. At the vet hospital She has been glued to me since she was a pup. When my wife had a cold, or my son broke his leg she stayed with them. When I became so ill with brain cancer back around 3 years ago Jessica changed and became even more of a service dog on her own. Labs are a very smart ,very gentle breed who just love and serve.
When I was truely sick and was bed ridden after my diagnosis, my wife had to come to the bedroom to get Jessica to come out of the room to eat. She would not leave my side. So, God gave me and my entire family a very special gift with Jessica and I am grateful to God to have had her through my darkest of days.
I will not be replacing my Jessica either it would not be fair in my current physical capacity. I used to play ball and wrestle with her all the time she was a big cuddly teddy bear.
My wife said to me at around 2:30 this morning the problem with dogs is that they don’t live long enough.
I agree 100 percent we could have shared 100 years with our baby.
I am glad that we were with her, I am glad that we had such a good day yesterday. She ate breakfast hung out with our other old pup Jeremiah , and came to my chair where I roughed her up . I loved playing with her and she ate it up 🙂
At one point she came up to me at my docking station. She put her chin on my lap and looked up into my eyes and stared. I rubbed her ears and told her she was the prettiest girl in the house. 🙂 I used to tell her even mommy said you are. Lol
I am so glad that she was ours, and that we were hers. We took her on all of our family vacations. She was so good.
God bless my pup Jessica Louise this might sound crazy to some and I really do not care but I do believe that I will see Jessica and all my little pets that we have lost again. Love does not just die, I do not think God operates that way.
Pets are a responsibility, pets are a little work but pets are love, company , unconditional love and always forgive our moods. Jessy was all of the above.
My wife and I met our friends over 20 years ago and they are part of our foundation of faith. We met through our parish school and our families became friendly. Cook outs birthday parties for our kids etc. They were the most open armed people I had ever met. They were helping everybody all the time. Nothing was a big deal. They both worked together in a health care related business they co-founded with partners and grew it into a huge business and had I believe 15 offices and hundreds of employee’s.
I do not know all the facts of what happened to their business it was on the new york stock exchange too, if memory serves me. The laws in their industry regarding in home health providers changed drastically and they were not being compensated for services rendered to the patients they were helping. They fought in court I believe and in the meantime they felt an obligation to take care of their patients and employees so they guaranteed the company financially. That way the elderly and handicapped as well as their employees would be taken care of during the court process.
Well, the courts ruled and the new law stood. They were losing everything . But were they really ? Absolutely not!
It was a painful and sad time for them their kids and all of their friends our hearts were broken as well. They had some friends who were there still and others that dissapeared too. Similar to my cancer situation.
But you see, God had something better in store. I will get to that shortly.
We watched their family home get taken apart, their home was sold and they found a new home that was in their new budget that was beautiful. It was even more beautiful because of them and the Spirit of God that resides with them.
At their old home back in that day they would host family parties for many families. Their Christmas parties were among the most beautiful that I had ever seen.
People were not drinking to access their could be 100 people there and it still felt warm. Their home was large and had a beautiful Christmas tree at least 15 foot tall. They were part of the Arts so their friends were there with equipment ,microphones and were singing. The 3 sisters that would come would sing that Karen Carpenter song ” Merry Christmas Darling “, and it was so beautiful. The whole group that was there were family based and many where from our church.
We often remember those gatherings so fondly.
It was at their home back in the summer of 1999 that my wife, myself and children were invited to an impromptu back yard cookout.
So, we were sitting there at the table on the deck, the kids were in the pool and another couple came in L and V. and joined us. During that time I said hey what’s that retreat thing you guys mentioned before? Within moments one of my friends L took off and returned with an application for Cursillo an incredible retreat encounter at a center in Methuen Ma . ST. Basils. My wife and I lived our Cursillo in Oct and Nov of that year. It was life changing.
You see, our friends H and P had heavy rain fall in their lives. They lived through what could have been a devastating loss, but it wasn’t. Because God’s got them. And they ADORE HIM.
Furthermore, P being a guy like me had feelings I am sure like I did, with this cancer that he too felt like he had failed his family. But you know, he never failed them nor did his wife H. When the laws changed, they protected their patients and employees until they had given all they had. P. and S. began the climb back up the mountain to see the sun again together. During this difficult time they displayed such courage. They grew their faith together and sponsored many for the retreat center. They represent Jesus Christ in action to so many. H. Started cleaning homes and became a real estate broker too. P got a new job in a medical field and if that were not enough P then applied and was excepted into the deaconate and was vetted through the very difficult process of becoming a Roman Catholic Deacon. It was I believe a 5 year process. My wife and I were honored to attend p’s ordination at the Cathedral in Boston. The deaconate training was very tough and his wife H was part of the process too. But they shined as a couple and were excepted to serve God in this ministry. They see Victory and live it through God !
I will continue with this soon beautiful story 🙂 It gets ever better 🙂 Praise God !
I came upon this video which I had never seen before. Even the song was foreign to me. But it was interesting. Being an alterboy back in the day was quite an honor. I was for quite some time and was always nervous that I would mess up during mass. Which , I did often.
I went to bed last night did my evening prayers and while I laid in bed, I settled into my bed and was very comfortable. I heard the heat thermostat click and the bedroom begin to warm. I had a wonderful day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and even a small piece of cake.( My daughters boyfriends birthday) 🙂
Well, I had a busy night tossing and turning wrestling with my left hand clenching and then releasing. You see I am in the midst of my slow motion Miracle. My left side is healing and my left hand aggravates me to no end. So, I offer the claw up daily in prayer. Lol. You have to laugh at life or you could start to cry. Life can be frustrating. Out of frustration I am learning perseverance.
So anyways, I hopped out of bed at 4:40am I came down to the docking station and turned on the television. It was a little early for my morning prayer and I thought I would just lay there and see what was going on in the news. Well I saw per usual very little good going on and hit the remote button and on came a program that I had never seen.
For the past number of months or so my heart and mind have been drawn to the suffering of my fellow man. Not that I had not been concerned before but it is some how more in the front of my mind.I suspect God has his purpose for this. It’s one of those what can I do moments? I can do what I always do and send a little money. So, I guess this blog would be the only other thing at my disposal in this moment.
While I was sitting there this woman was highlighted in song and her story was high lighted in a program.
The Refuge Missions Trip to Tanzania, East Africa 2007
My Question to this terrible situation. Starvation in this world,when will it end? This next song is from the 60’s and is comfronting yetanother social issue of that day. But this song can be used in this situation too. They are hanging in their waiting for a change. Please pray. Amen.
Just Danny Speaks 