Dear God . . . I Have Become My Father

Guest blogger: Jay

I believe the evolutionary process of a child becoming an adult goes as follows . . . child believes and hangs onto every word their parents say . . . adolescent rebels and swears never to repeat any words of wisdom, ever, in their adult life . . . and then somewhere about 30 years old (or within first couple of years of having your own children), you incredulously start to incorporate some of the same words of wisdom into your very own parenting.

One of the sayings my dad would verbalize often that I’ve subscribed to is ”don’t tell me what you believe are your priorities . . . let me just observe what you do for a period of time . . . and I will tell you what you really value." This has been great in making decisions when two or more options exist. This however, has not been so great at times when I am honest with what I have devoted my time to during days of the past, especially during many of my business weekdays.

I find that I've had days where work dominated a majority of my thoughts. I find there have been days my will dominated my thoughts. I have had days where money issues dominated. And I've had days were people who didn't support my faith, my family, or my health . . . have dominated my day.

In todays Gospel (Matthew 6:24-34), Jesus forewarns that if God is not the center of our thoughts then mammon is. Now I’m absolutely sure  I never called these other things mammon, but they were my mammon. I am also sure I am being told if I focus on anything other than God . . . then it can be labeled as mammon:

Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

In Anne a lay apostle's book Climbing the Mountain, St. Peter illuminates todays arrogance of focusing on self over God:

"I asked Saint Peter if these times were darker than the times in which he lived. He said this: 'In my time men worshipped false gods. There was self-will, of course, and sin. The difference between my time and your time, though, is the level of arrogance. Man thinks he is a god. Man is filled with arrogance. The great learning and knowledge is generally not being used to further each other, but to advance self. This is not the way our Lord intended man to live.'"

Lay apostles, what have your mammons been? Have you removed all of them from your life? If you haven't, now is the perfect opportunity to get re-centered, redirected and wide open to receiving all of the promises, blessings, and gifts of Christ.

Father, thank you for Your words of wisdom even though in our early journey with You (similar to our adolescent years in life), we thought we knew better. God, help us to be wise enough, to just accept (not reinvent . . . not modify . . . not reject) what is already masterful!

In gratitude and humility,

Jay