Worthy is the Lamb

One of my favorite songs, taken from Revelation 7, is Worthy is the Lamb.  When you read Scripture and listen to the song, you see the beautiful correlations.

Reading 1RV 7:2-4, 9-14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East,
holding the seal of the living God.
He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels
who were given power to damage the land and the sea,
“Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees
until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal,
one hundred and forty-four thousand marked
from every tribe of the children of Israel.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

From http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110116.cfm 

And now, the song from OCP:



Any time I sing and/or play for Mass, I try to be fully present.  This means truly believing what I'm singing, and thus, singing with conviction and emphasis.  This song resonates with me, and I find it easy to pour my heart into the music.  There are not enough words to describe Jesus' gift of salvation, and any attempt will fall short.  Yet, my attempts to do so are a gift to God.  The fact that I recognize how inadequate my words are, how inept my actions can be, reinforces the beauty of God's love.  God is pleased with my attempts, minor though they are.  I consider this to be practice for the glorious day when we are robed in white, praising God non-stop.  So, until that day comes, we must continue to strive to be worthy, as God is.

Prayer - Lord, help me to grow in awareness of Your greatness.  Open my eyes to Your beauty and power.  Grant me the ability to see You in my life, so that I may live every day and every moment for You.  May I continually strive to attain You.  Amen.

Thankful Thursday - Home, sweet home

Well, that was fast.

As in, I got an offer on my house and they wanted to close in 15 days!  Yikes.  Yesterday was closing, and now I am without a house.  Thanks to my fabulous realtor, Steve, for his time and commitment.  I am grateful for the opportunity to work with him.  God is good.

Having listed my house in January, shortly after I opened the current chapter in my life journey, I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of speed.  "The housing market is good," they said.  "Your house will sell quickly," they said.  I guess it's all relative.  

It's official!

It was definitely evident that God had a plan, even if I didn't know the details of said plan.  For one thing, I was never panicked about the sale of my house.  That's not to say I didn't have moments of anxiety or doubt.  Yet, I had a peace about the situation that wasn't of this world.  I am grateful that God granted me the grace of patience in this situation.  I had just experienced God's plan when I accepted my new job, so it made sense that this would have been figured out already.  Cross that off of my to-do list :-)

One thing that really made me smile was the timing of the offer.  I had been planning a surprise party on May 1, and the venue ended up being my unoccupied house, for lack of a better option.  The phone call about the offer came April 27, and I just knew that the timing was certainly of God - enough time to wrap things up, have the party, finalize details, and revel in God's goodness.  I liked the idea, too, that this happened around Tasha's birthday - I'm sure she had her fingers in there as well.

Celebrating the sale :-)

What's next?  I'm not sure.  In the next moments, I want to focus on God's goodness and the gifts I have received.  I cannot express enough how thankful I am for everyone's love and support.  So I will close with this prayer:

Ephesians 3:14-19  "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

The house formerly known as mine :-)

All in God's time

Living in the present - being present - living with full awareness.  I do not do these well all of the time, but I'd like to think that I am persistent in my efforts.  I choose my attitude and my effort.  Some days are harder then others.  Yet, through it all, I am aware of God.

God is good.

So naturally, we all wish to respond:  All the time.

And, if we've done that, the next step is:  And all the time . . .

GOD IS GOOD!

Even when there are crappy times and struggles and pain and hurt, our sovereign God is still loving us, reaching for us, inviting us closer.

Thankful Thursday 3/3/16 - The Unexpected

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."  Philippians 4:13

So, my Thursday started like any other day.  Lots to do at work.  Go to Mass.  Stop to visit my parents.  Eat supper with them.  Fracture my foot on my way out the door.  The usual routine.  Wait . . . . What???  

Well, I took the 2nd last step as if I were on the bottom step, and down I went.  The irony is, we worry about my parents tripping and falling, and I"m the one who fell!  Oops.  The doctor says I'm in the boot for now and he wants to see me in 10 days.  

Well, that certainly wasn't part of MY plan.  I just attended a healing Mass the night BEFORE!  Rotten timing.  Just another reminder that I'm not in charge :-)!

I'll admit, I have a history of crazy foot injuries.  Well, only 2, but they are unique.  The time I stepped on a pork chop bone when I was a kid (this is when you gave food bones to your dogs on the farm and they left them all over) and it punctured my shoe and foot and I had to get a tetanus shot.  Or the time I sprained both of my ankles at once when I was first out of college, living by myself (I blame my platform shoes).  Stairs were especially challenging.  Talk about being immobile!  

A grateful heart

There are so many blessings in my life right now.  Even with the stress and fear that the uncertainty of a loved one's health, I am blessed.  It overwhelms me.  I'm listening to my current playlist called 'Meditation' and I am remembering my blessings.  A wonderful evening spent with a kindred soul, a quick text from a friend, a letter in the mail, looking at the smiling face of my goddaughter; all of these things are pieces of my life, things that feed my soul.  What have I done to earn this?  Nothing.  If that's true, then how can I keep these things from slipping away?  I can't.  But I have faith in God, and comfort in the knowledge that God is certain, even if nothing else makes sense.  

I pick up lots of interesting pieces of information and quotes that catch my attention.  I came across this gem again, and it fit so well with my current thoughts, I wanted to share it here:

"Being grateful makes us happy! Not the other way around, we are not necessary grateful when we become happy, however a grateful heart becomes happy without fail! Find something to be grateful about in every moment, I guarantee you, you will know happiness in every moment. You don't have to be grateful for the bad situations, but in every situation, you can chose to find something to be grateful about, to focus on the good, to count your blessings, there is always! Look at the sun, the moon, the stars, how beautiful and how blessed we are have them at our service!!!"  ~Immaculee

I had the privilege of hearing Immaculee speak at an event last year.  Her story is inspirational and amazing.  I highly recommend her books, especially "Left to Tell".  I want to be a person with a grateful heart.  I want to radiate that love and joy in my life.

Prayer - Lord, I am so easily overwhelmed in my life that I lose focus on You.  Help me to see with the eyes of my heart and to know the beauty that exists even in the midst of sadness and pain.  You are my constant.