Do Whatever He Tells You

Welcome to 2014! If only I could synchronize my thoughts with actually sitting down to write what is in my heart.  As I begin this New Year, I am full of joy and expectation and resolved to be better in a number of ways.  January 1st, I began right for the first time in years...I went to mass!! After all, my Catholic faith I espouse has taught me that it IS a holy day of obligation.  I almost did not as I had my inlaws packing to leave, my husband  at work and I was tired from staying out at parties till past midnight and holiday entertaining.  I do believe that God was challenging me and  I knew clearly in my heart what he was telling me to DO...  make following him and doing what he was telling me a priority by following through and   joining with others in my faith community to honor him first on this 1st day of the New Year. 

My trip to church was rewarded as it always it by seeing friends and more importantly by a renewal of joy that comes from obeying my Lord and Savior putting him first and turning everything over to him. "Obey" doing as someone else is telling us is often challenging and in today's world downright counter cultural. The title for this post comes right out of scripture from the gospel of John Chapter 2,  

"On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.  When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him. 'They have no wine.'
 [And] Jesus said to her, 'Woman how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.'  His mother said to the servers, 'Do whatever he tells you.'" 

Here as the story unfolds we see, Jesus, God incarnate, choosing to obey his mother by performing his first miracle and transforming the water into wine.  This brings up a question of why would Jesus or why would anyone choose to obey another?  A recent thought provoking question that I heard from a deacon at church during a gathering of our Cursillo community was, "Do we obey because we love or do we love because we obey? My response after weeks of pondering is that we obey because we love.  Choosing to obey or submit to another is often an act of selfless love when done not out of coercion, fear or guilt but truly and lovingly deciding to respond by doing what is asked.

So how to discern what God is asking?  My life and those of many whom I call friends in my faith community have been incredibly blessed by a movement within our church called Cursillo.  There is a similar movement in the Protestant Faith called Walk to Emmaus and Tres Dias.  To know anyone God included demands that we devote time to that relationship. We do this in 3 ways first through study or learning. Second, We must devote time talking and listening to God by prayer or piety.  Finally, once we know we must move forward with action by doing what he is telling us. 

Much of 2013 for me was spent studying and praying.  Having started last January with a breast cancer diagnosis, I learned and encountered many new and challenging things from medical information to the realities of how many people have been touched by and affected by this disease.  I confronted the reality that my life was ultimately in God's hands. I prayed, increased my attendance at mass and was joined by and supported by others who prayed for my strength and healing as I journeyed through fear, sickness and once again toward physical health with a new sense of understanding and awareness. I can honestly say that 2013 was a time for me to grow spiritually with a new awareness of what matters in life and paving the way for a future where my life can be more purposeful moving forward.  Yes God, I am listening and you have my attention.  Now in 2014, the challenge is to action by obeying God and serving him first and foremost. 2