You Are Not Breaking: You Are Becoming

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You are not breaking down – you are a process of becoming who you are meant to be.

Me: Hey God.

God: Hello…..

Me: I’m falling apart. Can you put me back together?

God: I would rather not.

Me: Why?

God: Because you aren’t a puzzle.

Me: What about all of the pieces of my life that are falling down onto the ground?

God: Let them stay there for a while. They fell off for a reason. Take some time and decide if you need any of those pieces back.

Me: You don’t understand! I’m breaking down!

God: No – you don’t understand. You are breaking through. What you are feeling are just growing pains. You are shedding the things and the people in your life that are holding you back. You aren’t falling apart. You are falling into place. Relax. Take some deep breaths and allow those things you don’t need anymore to fall off of you. Quit holding onto the pieces that don’t fit you anymore. Let them fall off. Let them go.

Me: Once I start doing that, what will be left of me?

God: Only the very best pieces of you.

Me: I’m scared of changing.

God: I keep telling you – YOU AREN’T CHANGING!! YOU ARE BECOMING!

Me: Becoming who?

God: Becoming who I created you to be! A person of light and love and charity and hope and courage and joy and mercy and grace and compassion. I made you for more than the shallow pieces you have decided to adorn yourself with that you cling to with such greed and fear. Let those things fall off you. I love you! Don’t change! Become! Become! Become who I made you to be. I’m going to keep telling you this until you remember it.

Me: There goes another piece.

God: Yep. Let it be.

Me: So … I’m not broken?

God: Of course not! But you are breaking like the dawn. It’s a new day. Become!!!

Written By: John Roedel

The Name Of God

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God Chose A Name That Is Always On Our Lips

There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.

Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels.

But scholars and Rabi’s have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds, or aspirated consonants. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing.

YH (inhale): WH (exhale).

So a baby’s first cry, his first breath, speaks the name of God.

A deep sigh calls His name – or a groan or gasp that is too heavy for mere words.

Even an atheist would speak His name, unaware that their very breathe is giving constant acknowledgment to God.

Likewise, a person leaves this earth with their last breath, when God’s name is no longer filing their lungs.

So when I can’t utter anything else, is my cry calling out His name?

Being alive means I speak His name constantly.

So, is it heard the loudest when I’m the quietest?

In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs.

In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst.

In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down.

When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage.

When I think about it, breathing is giving him praise. Even in the hardest moments!

This is so beautiful and fills me with emotion every time I grasp the thought. God chose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak every moment we’re alive.

All of us, always, everywhere.

Waking, sleeping, breathing, with the name of God on our lips.

Written by: Sandra Thurman Caporale from the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston.

Graphic artist of the image above: unknown.

 

Inspiring Reflections on Life By Pope Francis

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Hospitals Are The Most Beautiful Churches on Earth…

Hospital walls have heard more honest prayers than churches.

They’ve seen far more sincere kisses than those at airports.

It is at the hospital that you see a homophobic being saved by a gay doctor.

The wealthy doctor saving the life of a beggar.

In the ICU you see a Jew taking care of a racist.

A police patient and a prisoner in the same ward receiving the same care.

A rich patient in the liver transplant queue ready to receive the organ from a poor donor.

When hospitals touch the wounds of people that the universe brings together on divine purpose, we realize that we were not created to be alone.

The absolute truth of people, most of the time, only appears at the moment of pain or the real threat of definitive loss.

Hospitals are a place where human beings strip off their masks and reveal their true essence. Raw, naked and real, the way you were when you were born. Each of us at our most vulnerable and yet equally at our most beautiful.

This life will pass too quickly.

Do not fight with people.

Do not criticize your body so much.

Don’t complain so much.

Don’t lose sleep over the bills.

Be sure to kiss your loved ones.

Don’t worry so much about making the house spotless.

Goods and assets must be conquered but do not dedicate yourself to accumulating inheritance.

Keep the dogs closer.

Throw away clutter.

Use the new cutlery.

Don’t skimp on your favorite perfume, use it for a walk with yourself.

Wear your favorite sneakers and reuse your favorite clothes as often as you want. So what?!?

If it is not wrong, why not do it now? Today!

Why not take a break now?

Why not make the call now?

Why not forgive now?

Christmas, Friday and next year is not guaranteed.

Don’t put things off, waiting until you have money, until love comes, until everything is perfect.

There is no such thing as perfect.

Human beings cannot achieve these things because we were simply not made to complete ourselves here.

This life is a learning opportunity.

So, ENJOY this life essay and do it now.

Respect yourself and respect others.

Follow your path and do not comment, judge or meddle with the path chosen by other people.

Love more. Forgive more. Embrace more. Live more intensely and leave the rest in the Hands of the Creator.

 

God Meets Women Where They Are

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Have you ever noticed how in the scriptures men are always going up into the mountains to commune with the Lord?

Yet in the scriptures we hardly ever hear of women going to the mountains.

But we know why — right?

Because the women were too busy keeping life going; they couldn’t abandon babies, meals, homes, fires, gardens and a thousand responsibilities to make the climb into the mountains!

I was talking to a friend the other day, saying that as modern woman I feel like I’m never “free” enough from my responsibilities, never in a quiet enough space I want with God.

Her response floored me:

“That is why God comes to women. Men have to climb the mountain to meet God, but God comes to women where ever they are.”

I have been pondering on her words for weeks and have searched my scriptures to see that what she said is true. God does in deed come to women where they are, when they are doing their ordinary, everyday work.

He meets them at the wells where they draw water for their families, in their homes, in their kitchens, in their gardens.

He comes to them as they sit beside sickbeds, as they give birth, care for the elderly and perform necessary mourning and burial rites.

Even at the empty tomb, Mary was the first to witness Christ’s resurrection. She was there because she was doing the womanly chore of properly preparing Christ’s body for burial.

In these seemingly mundane and ordinary tasks, these women of the scriptures found themselves face to face with divinity.

So if — like me — you ever start to bemoan the fact that you don’t have as much time to spend in the mountains with God as you would like. Remember, God comes to women. He knows where we are and the burdens we carry. He sees us, and if we open our eyes and our hearts we will see Him, even in the most ordinary places and in the most ordinary things.

He lives. And he’s using a time such as this to speak to women around the world.

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Content: Heather F