Soul Scribe

If you’re looking for God, stop. What?!? Why?!?

Because God is already there with you. Stop looking for God and find Him.

It’s not hide and seek. Or even rocket science. It’s about faith.

Let’s face it. As humans, we’re skeptical and curious – and all of these are great – but we’re really not all that strong on faith.

So many things in this world tell us that faith isn’t enough – that God isn’t real. This makes us question God and test Him. And God understands this – and puts up with it. He did after all give us the gift of life and free will. We’re not toys to God or chess pieces. He doesn’t orchestrate us. But he’s always there for us to turn to – when we make that choice.

God is a mystery. He can’t be fully explained. He can’t be proven or unproven. He just is. He’s I Am Who Am. He’s God With Us.

Yet, we still ask – just who is that “Am” anyway?

It’s God. The answer’s that simple. And He’s right next to you if you’re looking. Find Him and get to know Him.

He’s waiting for you.

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

G.K. Chesterton

Life hits rough patches for all of us.

When the road turns rough, faith is crucial.  It’s also doubly hard.  When so many things are up in the air, it’s hard to leave things in God’s hand.

Someone reminded me recently of what I already know.  He said “no problem is too great for God.”

Sometimes, you need to hear things you already know.  It keeps you on the path.

And it reminds you that despite all the roughness, there are still bright moments to cherish.

Dream Over

That was the headline for a story on Susan Boyle, the contestant who caught the attention of the world in Britain’s TV talent show – Britain’s Got Talent.  She wasn’t your average – wait, she was your average-looking singer.  She wasn’t this polished, made-up and groomed mega-star like Beyoncé – or whatever she’s calling herself now.

She was a normal person with a God-given talent for singing.  Everyone wrote her off based on her appearance until she started to sing.

Now, I’m a huge reality show fan.  One thing you learn from watching reality TV is that the outer package doesn’t always tell the truth about what’s on the inside.

There’s plenty of great-looking people that I wouldn’t want to be around for one minute.  They need to spend just as much time grooming the inside as they do the outer beauty.

You can’t judge any book by its cover – because you have to ponder the words inside before you know the story.

Just because Susan didn’t win, doesn’t mean her dream is over.  Her dream is using her talent.  And she wants to continue to do just that.  So often nowadays, we must put another down to raise up ourselves.  Susan didn’t win – therefore she lost.  She has no worth.

It’s just not good enough anymore to be talented.  One has to be THE NEXT BIG THING or your dream is over.  It’s not okay to be good and to use your talent in the world.

The pressure that people put on Susan Boyle is unreasonable.  This is an amateur talent contest – she’s not a professional yet.  What about the growth she’s experienced as a singer?

Her voice is extraordinary.  I hope she holds onto that and doesn’t let anyone take away what God gave her – a voice to sing with.

Sing and continue to dream, Susan.  God hears you even when others do not.

No one is really happy merely because he has what he wants, but only if he wants things he ought to want.

St. Augustine

Man is what he believes. 

Anton Chekhov 

And for us this is the end of all the stories.  All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on Earth has read…in which every chapter is better than the one before.

C. S. Lewis
The Last Battle,
Chronicles of Narnia

Broken things are precious. We eat broken bread because we share in the death of our Lord and his broken life. Broken flowers give perfume. Broken incense is used in adoration. A broken ship saved Paul and many other passengers on the way to Rome. Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

God calls us to lead lives of holiness.  Jesus gave the most perfect example with his own life.  But he gave us other examples of holiness in his own mother, the Virgin Mary, and the saints.

Saints are people to whom we can relate, essentially role models for the faithful.  Saints do not forget those of us on Earth.  They follow Jesus’ commandment to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:39) even after death.  In following this, saints pray intensely for those of us on Earth.  And thank goodness, because we really need it!

While we ask saints for help, it is by God that our prayers are answered.  Saints help us at the request of Jesus and through God’s power.  When you pray to a saint, you’re not worshiping that saint.  You’re asking for the saint to pray for you and ask God to help you.

God is the one acting in our lives, not the saints.  They’re just the messengers showing us the way to reach the Lord.