As beloved sons and daughters of the most high God we have been given the entire world to do with it what we want. What an amazing gift! A walk outside on a beautiful day, a hug from a loved one, the loyal love of a family pet, a conversation with a dear friend, a wonderful meal, sacred time in our church, in adoration, in prayer and the gift of the Eucharist – all beautiful gifts from God. And to think, we did nothing to deserve or earn any of these gifts, they were freely given to us.
God not only gave us our beautiful planet to call home, he told us exactly what we need to do to enjoy all the life and prosperity our hearts desire. He promised we would live and become numerous if we but only obey him. Additionally, he assures us that his laws, his commandments will also grant life to our children, grandchild and generations that follow. We will become like a tree planted near a stream that bears fruit and never withers. Our every project will always succeed and God will bless us. All we have to do is listen and follow God’s commandments. It all sounds so easy. Sign me up!
But wait, God didn’t stop there. He went further when he told us that by choosing disobedience we will experience death and disaster. He did not tell us this out of a desire to punish us, rather, as a warning from a loving parent. If we allow our hearts to turn away, if we refuse to listen and if we let ourselves be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them we will most certainly perish.
It all seems pretty clear. Obey God’s commandments and experience all our hearts could ever desire or choose disobedience and death and disaster will follow. Seems like a no-brainer, especially when you see his commandments. He really doesn’t ask that much. So what went wrong? Why do we continually fall short of total obedience?
Perhaps it’s a lack of trust. Maybe we hold on to the false believe that we need to control our lives before we can truly experience happiness. Perhaps we “know” in our head that God really has our best interested at heart; however, our heart isn’t so sure of this and it wants to take matters into it’s own hands. How many times have you asked God for something and you then proceeded to tell him the best resolution?
How many other god’s do we worship? Perhaps we are not worshipping Zeus or the sun god anymore. However, are we worshiping control as a source of safety? Do we worship financial stability? Do we worship intellect? Do we worship perfection? Do we worship education? Do we worship physical health? Do we worship poverty in an unhealthy way? What other gods are we worshipping?
While it is good to have a plan for your life, after all most of us just can’t wander around aimlessly in this world, putting too much focus on the future leads one to excess worry. This worry then becomes a distraction that takes us away from God. Additionally, it is good to use your gift of intellect just as it is good to work and create financial stability for your family. God gave us our intellect and when we surrender this gift to creating for God our human mind will create miraculous things for ourselves, for our families and for all of God’s children. And of course we need to care for our physical body so it is strong and healthy enough to serve as God desires us to do. However, when we no longer seek to serve our brothers by surrendering our gifts to God then we have begun serving other gods and death will follow.
So why do we allow these other “gods” into our lives? Well, we get confused and we believe that they, in and of themselves, can provide the life and prosperity we seek. We become focused on our life, our personal life, and we hold on to it. We stay up in our head, thinking and worrying about things of the world. We do not allow our heart to reach for the one true God, instead our head reaches for the other gods. Little do we know, we will only find the life and prosperity our hearts desire when we follow God’s commandments and laws – surrendering all control to his plan for our life.
As Jesus said in today’s gospel, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.” We must renounce the god’s that give us false hope and false security. The gods that we will be confronted with every day. We must take up our cross and our struggles every day and follow Jesus. Yes, every day we will be confronted by crosses of the false gods. Every day we will need to battle them. However, when we lose our life to Jesus and do the will of the Father we will save our life. All we need to do is follow his commandments.
Jesus – I love you!
