ChristianTales.com
  • Home
  • Spiritual Blog
  • Contact Me
  • The Ghost Driver
  • A Scandalous Education

Look Up - Not Down!

5/16/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture





If we look down.....

Picture






..that's where we'll end up













Thank you, Christina Dale and Smugmug for the photos in this post :)

Our previous parish priest exhorted us to look up, not at the ground. 

If we persist in staring down, that’s where we’re going to end up. Elevating our thoughts towards Heaven prevents us from becoming despondent and downhearted.

He's so right! When things go horribly wrong in my own life, I shuffle along feeling sorry for myself, with hunched shoulders and bowed head. Everything is doom and gloom.

What a different story when I lift up my head, straighten my shoulders and meet life head on! The physical act of standing upright brings with it a sense of determination and purpose.

Then we pray to God for help and He gives us the strength to deal with the difficulties life throws at us.

Picture



                                                                     



We have to swallow our pride and get back on that horse (once we catch him)!

On One’s High Horse

It’s the same when you’re on a horse. No matter whether you’re riding dressage or jumping, you need to sit up straight and look ahead.

With dressage this means looking at the letter you're aiming for in a particular movement. For jumping, it means looking over the fence, not at it. You don’t want to land on the obstacle, you want to clear it. 

In both scenarios we mustn't look down, or that's where we’ll end up!

What Happens When We Fall?

When we first learn to ride, we think that not falling off makes us good riders and we're proud of ourselves.

But then comes the day when we take a tumble. The longer it has taken that day to come, the harder it is to shake off the experience and get back on the horse.

Some people never do. I often hear stories from friends about how the day they fell off a horse was the time they rode. They never got back in the saddle – they didn’t want to take the chance of falling off again.

How sad! They've missed out on so much fun.

I’ve fallen off more times than I can remember. Some of those incidents were physically painful, others just bruised my ego. Even though I never want to, I get back on the horse straight away, if I'm physically able.

If not, I would have to brand myself a coward for life. That would be way more painful.

I’m not naturally courageous. If you follow my horse blog posts, you’ll see plenty of occasions when I’m nervous and it takes a lot to get me going again. My horse, Cruz Bay and I have taken some dreadful tumbles, and it isn’t easy to get over them.

I have to work at avoiding the errors which led to those falls and not give up when I mess up. 

The Christian life requires the same attitude. 

Picture




We need to learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them

Be Perfect as Your Heavenly Father Is Perfect

That is one tough challenge, isn’t it? Who can live up to that?

Riding has taught me that I will never be the perfect horsewoman, but I still strive to become that person. How much more vital is reaching for perfection in the Christian life!

Sadly for many, the seeming impossibility of attaining this goal is so discouraging that they don’t even try to reach it. Or maybe they work hard for a while, feel they’re making progress, then become despondent when they fall into sin again. 

Having sinned once more, they've proved they’re not perfect. So they may as well commit another, and another, until they are much further from the goal than when they started.

Christ talks about this when he mentions the man whose house is swept clean when the demons are removed. But when the man is not truly committed and doesn’t replace those demons with good living, many more come back into him than were there in the first place (Luke 11:24-46).

Picture





We need to make peace with our horses and ourselves and carry on

A Reason to Give Up?

Does that mean that it's hopeless trying to be good?

Of course not!  Christ died on the cross to make up for our deficiencies and grant us mercy when we fail: He walks with us in the good times and the bad.

If we fall into sin, we must sincerely repent and ask Him for forgiveness then pick ourselves up and walk again in the paths of righteousness.

We will fall into sin, time and time again. Way more often than the average rider falls off a horse!

Follow Your Passion

But if Christ is our passion, we get up, dust ourselves off with a healthy visit to the confessional, and resume our spiritual course. If we love Christ, we’ll be quick to apologize to the One Whose mercy is endless and Whose compassion inexhaustible.

Christ reaches out His hands to us every time we fail. 

We then mustn't sin further by refusing to trust in His mercy and forgiveness, or equate Christ’s limitless reservoir of forgiveness with the pitiful puddle that is our own version of it.  

Falling Must Lead to Getting Up

Being human, we expect to fall. Being a Christian means getting up from a fall - again and again and again.

That is where Catholics are fortunate: we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation and hear the words of the priest in persona Christi absolving us of our sins. We can receive a fresh start as often as we need it.

And for those of us who feel that we might as well take a tape recording of our sins and press ‘play’ for the priest at every confession, because the sins are always the same: would you rather have more to confess than you already have?

We must keep battling with our sins, and get up again and again and again for the rest of our lives.

Then we can truly call ourselves Christians.

0 Comments

What is Plan B for Christians?

3/26/2013

0 Comments

 
Jesus I Trust in you!
The original Painting of Divine Mercy by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, painted in 1934 in Vilnius under the guidance of Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaplet_of_Divine_Mercy








Being a good Christian is difficult, especially these days.

It’s unfashionable to follow the precepts of a man who lived over 2000 years ago and doesn’t embrace the spirit of our times, which tells us to ‘eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'

Instead He exhorts us to "turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” New Living Translation (©2007) Matt. 16:24

Where’s the appeal in that?

And does such a lifestyle guarantee admittance to heaven? Supposing we ‘take up our cross’ only to end up in the nothingness of the Universe after we die, instead of living in eternal happiness with God? We'll have missed out on so much!

Would it not be smart to have a Plan B – a back-up creed, as it were ─ just in case we’re wrong to believe in Christ and His teachings?

Napoleon’s Life Strategy

In his famous book ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ Napoleon Hill outlines principles for attaining earthly success and writes about the many men who’ve applied them.

A certain Edwin C. Barnes wanted to work with (not for) Thomas Edison. Mr. Hill writes:  “Barnes' desire was not a hope! It was not a wish! It was a keen, pulsating DESIRE, which transcended everything else. It was DEFINITE.”

Mr. Barnes was so determined to achieve his aim, that he was willing to “burn all bridges behind me, and stake my ENTIRE FUTURE on my ability to get what I want."

Barnes ‘did not say, "I will keep my eyes open for another opportunity, in case I fail to get what I want in the Edison organization."……“He stood by his DESIRE until it became the dominating obsession of his life ─ and ─ finally, a fact.”

In short, Barnes’ goal became an obsession, and everything he did was in order to achieve this one end. He succeeded. ‘Out of that business association (with Edison) grew the slogan, "Made by Edison and installed by Barnes."’

Christ’s Strategy

God demands the same ‘obsession’ from us, and warns against trying to be of this world and of God. We can choose only one.

The first commandment is unambiguous about this.  “I am the Lord your God…. You shall have no other gods before Me.” (My italics)
Exodus 20:2-17   

Jesus elaborates further on the level of commitment God requires of us.

'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' Matthew: 22:37

We must guard against deep attachment to the things of this world for  only love of God makes us willingly obey His laws. And when we don’t obey His laws, it proves we don’t love or believe in Him.  

St. James admonishes those who can’t choose one or the other 'god,' and calls them ‘double-minded.’

“Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” James 1:8.  The New Living Translation (©2007)

Clarke’s Commentary on the same webpage
explains it this way:

“A man of this (double-minded) character is continually distracted; he will neither let earth nor heaven go, and yet he can have but one.”  

St. James also makes it clear that such “people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” unless their “faith is in God alone.” James 1:6-7

We can’t pray to God only when we want something and expect Him to give it to us, when we worship the pursuit of worldly wealth instead of Him the rest of the time.

If You Aren't For Me...

It isn't possible to love God and Mammon: love of one excludes love of the other. Either we are for God or we are against Him: there is no middle ground.

Christ is very clear about this: "Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me.” Matthew 12:30 New Living Translation (©2007)

He also outlines the consequences of not being wholeheartedly Christian:

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He returns in His glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” Luke 9:26 New Living Translation (©2007)

We can’t be successful in any undertaking if our commitment is lukewarm. The desire of true Christians is to get to heaven: their lives are lived solely in the hope of being with God when they die.

Hope Versus Hope

Christian ‘hope’ is completely different from worldly hope.

Jack Weaver defines this in his ‘Notes From a Retired Preacher.’

‘The Hope of Heaven is not a maybe — but an absolute and definite guarantee by the Word of the Truth of the Gospel.
 
‘“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Titus 1:2
 
‘Eternal life — guaranteed and promised by the God of the Universe. He cannot lie... Every true believer in Jesus Christ may look with confidence to the glorious appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. (There is) No doubt!’
 
Christian hope is not wishful thinking: it is the absolute certainty of eternal life if we commit to Christ.
 
Do We Still Have Time?  

If we’ve been a doubting, ‘double-minded’ person, will Christ still accept our belated commitment to Him?

Absolutely!

 ‘“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.’ Joel 2:12-13 ESV

‘The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.’ Acts 17:30 ESV 

So now would be a good time. :)

Is There a Deadline?
 
Christ is the Merciful One during our lifetime. If we repent of our sins and ask for His forgiveness now, He will extend His infinite mercy to us.

This changes when we die.

Consider these words of Our Lord to Saint Faustina:

“Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. (1588)”

The moment we die, He becomes our Judge and His clemency is permanently over. 

“….after (the end times) will come the day of justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy; let them profit from the Blood and Water which gushed forth for them. (848) (My italics)

“Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the doors of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the doors of My mercy must pass through the doors of My justice... (1146)”

Now, Was That So Difficult?

Christ wants to save us, but we must humble ourselves and ask for His forgiveness. He cannot save us if we don't ask Him to. 

Catholics have to ask pardon for their sins out loud to a priest, which requires even more humility than a quiet acknowledgement of guilt to God alone.

But, however we do so, once we’ve admitted our faults and asked for forgiveness, a great burden lifts from us. Invited back into our hearts, Christ in His mercy walks with us again.

And as my former parish priest used to say, ‘Don’t look down or that’s where you’re going. Look up ─ at where you want to go!”

God must be the Alpha and Omega of our lives if we are to attain that for which He made us: eternal life with Him in heaven.

There is no Plan B for Christians. We don't need one.


Napoleon Hill quotes taken from:

Hill, Napoleon (2010-05-07). The Classic Napoleon Hill Masterpiece THINK AND GROW RICH [Illustrated & Annotated] (Kindle Locations 4470-4471). Northpointe Classics. Kindle Edition.(Available for 99c)

Or click here for free download.

St Faustina quotes taken from:

THE LIFE AND MISSION OF Saint Faustina APOSTLE OF THE DIVINE MERCY

0 Comments

A Great Easter (and not because of the chocolate eggs!)

4/25/2011

0 Comments

 
There was much for me to be thankful for this Easter.

The Planned Concert

On Saturday night my son drove off with his girlfriend to a concert four hours away, planning to come back that same evening. Behind my smile and “I hope you both have a good time” was deep anxiety that he would have an accident. He’s only nineteen and had just arrived home for Easter from college.

The Aborted Concert

An hour after leaving, he returned. “Must have forgotten the tickets, or his driver’s license,” I thought as I saw the car draw up. No. His girlfriend had checked the concert tickets en route: they were for October! (Luckily she thought it was funny.)

So instead of sitting at home fretting about them both, I spent a wonderful evening dining out with my husband, son and son’s girlfriend.

A Glorious Easter

On Sunday my menfolk surprised me by taking Easter seriously and dressing up in their smartest suits. I felt so proud sitting next to them in church! And during the whole of Mass I was giving God thanks for such a fantastic Easter.

(If I'm allowed to mention it, my horse also went well for me in the afternoon...)

Pushing Against that Stone

The Easter message began with a basketball analogy - the then Washington Bullets’ game in 1978. They were down by twenty in the fourth quarter and dispirited fans began streaming out of the stadium. They included our parish priest, a mere stripling in those days.

But suddenly people began running back to the game. The Bullets had made a comeback, and our priest returned to witness the final two minutes and the Washington team’s triumphant win.

His message to us is that we shouldn’t give up ‘before the fourth quarter is over.’ That is when God comes through for us.

When we feel trapped inside the tomb as was Christ, we must keep on pushing against the heavy stone that bars the entrance. God is on the other side, ready and willing to roll that boulder away if we remain confident in Him.  We Christians mustn’t give up, but hand over our problems and sufferings to God with complete confidence that He will resolve them for us.

Submission Ain't Easy

Have you noticed that when we need to do it the most, relinquishing control of our lives is the hardest to do? Handing over to God in our worst moments is the greatest test of our faith. The Devil works diligently on us at such times, trying to make us despair.

But complete submission to God is necessary in order for Him to work in our lives. It may be tough, but it’s absolutely worth it. That’s when we grasp victory in the fourth quarter.

0 Comments
    Tweet

    Hilary Walker

    A fanatic horse rider and writer of Christian Inspirational Fiction, who's beginning to understand that making it to Heaven is a tad more important than winning at horse shows.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2021
    December 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    Categories

    All
    Absolute Relativism
    Acknowledging Christ
    Acts Of Heroism
    Agony In The Garden
    A Happy Christmas
    Air Travel
    Alternative To Cow's Milk
    Anger
    Baby Jesus
    Baby Jesus
    Bad Horse Show
    Battling Relativism
    Battling Ulcerative Colitis
    Believing In The Invisible
    Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit
    Blessings
    Blind Faith
    Body And Blood Of Christ
    Body And Blood Of Jesus
    Body And Blood Of Jesus Christ
    Canonization
    Carrying The Cross
    Catholicism
    Chaplet Of Divine Mercy
    Chicago
    Chicago River
    Choosing Absolute Truth Over Absolute Relativism
    Choosing Christianity Over Relativism
    Christ
    Christ Crucified
    Christian Faith
    Christian Faith
    Christian Hero
    Christian Heroism
    Christianity
    Christianity And Tim Tebow
    Christian Response
    Christians
    Christmas
    Christmas Fall
    Christmas Stars
    Christmas Thanks
    Christmas Thanks
    Christ's Passion
    Confession
    Constellations
    Cross
    Cross Of Christ
    Crucifixion
    Daily Commute
    Daily Mass
    Dairy-free Product
    Definition Of Grace
    Despair
    Devil
    Disowning God
    Divine Mercy Sunday
    Dogs And Ulcerative Colitis
    Donkey Work
    Driving
    Easter
    Easter Monday
    Evangelizing
    Evil
    Extraordinary Graces
    Faith In The Unseen
    Falling Over
    Fasting
    Father Gerald Vann
    Father Jean C.J. D’Elbée
    Fear Of Flying
    Feast Of The Assumption
    Feeding Horses
    Feeling An Idiot
    Fighting For The Bride Of Christ
    Forgiveness Of Sins
    Funeral
    Gaudete
    Getting Children To Go To Mass
    Getting Young Adults To Go To Mass
    Give And You Shall Receive
    Giving Thanks
    Giving Thanks
    God
    God And Horses
    Golgotha
    Good Deeds
    Good Friday
    Good Habits
    Grace
    Green Chicago River
    Happiness
    Happy News For Easter
    Heaven
    Hematidrosis
    Holistic Approach To Ulcerative Colitis
    Holistic Bee Nutrition & Welness
    Holistic Healing
    Holy Communion
    Holy Spirit
    Home
    Hope
    Horses
    Horses And Heaven
    How To Get Your Child To Go To Mass
    Humility
    Hurt
    Husbands
    I Believe In Love
    Is Heaven Boring
    Jesus
    Joy
    Judas
    Judas' Betrayal Of Christ
    Judas The Weasel
    Keeping Faith Through Adversity
    Lent
    Lenten Mass
    Love
    Love Is An Act Of Will
    Loving Our Neighbor
    Mary Our Mother
    Mary The Mother Of God
    Mass
    Medjugorje
    Men
    Merciful Savior
    Mercy
    Merry Christmas
    Merry Christmas
    Miracles
    Mother's Day
    Mother Therese Of Jesus
    Nature Of Love Of God
    Nature Of Sin
    Novena
    Old Priests
    Our Lady
    Overcoming Doubts In God
    Overcoming Sin
    Parish Priest
    Patience
    Peace On Earth
    Peter
    Pope Francis
    Power Of Prayer
    Prayer
    Praying For Enemies
    Praying For Suicides
    Praying For Those Who
    Priests
    Reconciliation
    Redemption
    Rejecting Evil
    Rejection Of Christ
    Relativism
    Relic
    Relocating
    Repentance
    Resentment
    Rosary
    Sacrament Of Absolution
    Sacrament Of Confession
    Sacrament Of Reconciliation
    Satan
    Seven Daily Habits For Faithful Catholics.
    Sign Of The Cross
    Sins
    Son Of Man
    Spirituality Of Small Jobs
    Spiritual Lollipops
    Spiritual Oasis
    State Of Grace
    St Bridget's Prayers
    St Bridget's Promises
    St Faustina
    St. Jude
    Stroke
    Struggling Christians
    Suffering
    Sweating Blood
    The Agony In The Garden
    The Chaplet Of Mercy
    The Divine Mercy Chaplet
    The Gospel
    The Greatest Sin
    The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge
    The Power Of Setting The Example
    The Real Presence
    The Road To Destruction
    The Road To Perdition
    The Road To Ruin
    The True Presence
    Tim Tebow
    Tony Dungy
    Transubstantiation
    Treadmill
    Trust In Jesus
    Ttruth Not Relativism
    Ulcerative Colitis
    Voting Against Evil
    Weekday Mass
    Widow
    Young Adults And The Catholic Church

    RSS Feed