Walk It Off

I abhor being in a funk.  It doesn't happen very often, but it almost got the best of me last night.  It all started in a poorly lit dressing room.  Dress hunting for an event I'm attending turned very quickly from joy to feeling I will never go shopping again (just kidding . . . I am a girl!). I picked out some great dresses in my favorite store to try on. Then tragedy struck . . . the lighting combined with glancing at my 50 year old body in that lighting hit me like a ton of bricks.  Every single flaw was highlighted times ten! I kept telling myself to look away, consoling with thoughts of amping up my workouts.  But my mood had already tanked.  Despite most of the dresses fitting, nothing felt good on.  My stress level continued to increase after looking at my watch.  The stores would be closing in an hour.  I raced to the next store, praying I would find something . . . anything.  Again, horrible lighting.  This was becoming torturous. I tried one last store.  The lighting was softer, but no luck.  I was in a full blown funk now.  It took the patient and loving words of the man I'm dating to bring me back from my disheartened state.  And the funk was gone.   Isn't the walk of a Christian like that?  We so easily succumb to difficulties and crosses. But we have to remember the healing words of Jesus are ever present, ready to help us persevere.

Todays first reading (2 Cor 4:7-15) shows us the walk of a Christian is not an effortless journey, but sustains us in the trenches: 

We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

In the Monthly Message of January 2012, Jesus gives us reassurance:

“Allow Me please, to continue, and allow Me please, to sustain you personally. It is not My plan that you become dispirited and hopeless. It is My plan that if you suffer, you suffer peacefully, confident about My presence in your cross. I want you to work calmly, confident of My effectiveness in your work. You must be brave enough to love completely, confident of the benefit the world feels because of your decision to serve Me in whatever place you have found yourself on each day. Rejoice, dear apostles. Look forward with Me to greater holiness. I will protect My plan for you, but you must make a decision to accept heaven’s peace.”

And, in Anne a lay apostle's book Serving in Clarity, Jesus establishes what brings Him joy:

“I know what consoles you and gives you comfort. In the same way, you understand what consoles Me, what lifts Me and gives Me comfort. Shall I remind you? Love. Love gives Me solace in a time when there is great hatred. I look to you and I see suffering, yes, pain, of course, but also love. I see that you suffer for Me and this sustains Me. I see your sacrifices and I see your wounds, and yet you continue to serve your King. You do not melt away into the world as others have. You do not allow your heart to be hardened as some do. You work constantly to allow Me access as the Divine Healer. I require constant access to your little heart, it is true, but you give that to Me through your time in prayer and your willingness to be honest in assessing your actions and motives.”

Lay apostles, when you find yourself feeling anxious, hopeless, depressed or in a temporary funk, grab a Volume  (or click on any of the links to the right) and open to a random page.  Jesus will provide the comfort you need in that moment with words to sustain you.  

Thank you, Lord, for pulling me out of my funk very quickly last night.  I'm sorry something so trivial got the best of me.  The evil one was working overtime.  Thank you for the assistance to walk it off!

God bless,

Bonnie