Tag: trust

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Weekly Blog

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

The age old question….why do bad things happen to good people? Does God create evil in the world? Why does He allow tragedy to take place? If God is all-loving, why do people experience suffering?

The human condition is to experience these things, to suffer at some point during our lives. It skips no one. It doesn’t matter our race or religion, our gender or socioeconomic circumstances. It could start as something global like a natural disaster, war, or terrorism. Or it can be much closer to home, like the death of a loved one, addiction, divorce, serious illness, or significant financial crisis. We’re all going to experience something bad in our lives, maybe many things. The question is “why”, given that we have an all-loving God. 

Although an avid reader of faith-based books, including the Bible, I’m no Scripture scholar or theologian. For the Church’s teaching…in easy to understand terms, I’d suggest watching Fr. Mike Schmitz, my favorite Homilist and speaker on our faith, in this 7-minute video.

For me, every time I’ve experienced tragedy or heartache or pain in my life, it’s brought me closer to God. I’m currently going through something which I’d love to not be dealing with. It’s not one of the global things from above, but closer to home. It’s not something I’d wish for me or anyone else. Like past challenges it’s brought me closer to God. As such, it’s caused me to look within, reflecting on how my actions have impacted the situation. It’s also caused me to reach out for help. It’s not only helped me grow in my faith, but be more who God calls me to be. 

Things are crazy in our world today. With so many challenges, I think it’s sometimes easy to wallow in our sorrows. I’m not suggesting there’s no time for sadness or empathy. And I’m not suggesting that life is easy. My sense is that it’s not supposed to be. We’re certainly not guaranteed that it’s going to be. 

Know that God loves you more than you’ll ever know, no matter what you’ve ever done. As Fr. Mike says, God doesn’t create the bad times, but does allow them to take place. As tough as it may be at times, I’d encourage you to embrace all in your life, growing in everything you experience. And if I can be so bold, be in a place of gratitude, thanking God for all. 

I sincerely hope that you and your family had a Happy Thanksgiving, grateful for all as we head into the Advent season. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

The True Reason for the Season

It seems to me that the title of this blog is more often used as related to Christmas than Easter. I love Christmas and always have. With all the traditions from my childhood, the birth of our Lord and Savior has remained a joyous holiday for me.  

As I get older and grow more spiritually though, I find that Easter is the most meaningful of our Christian celebrations…the true reason for the season. Jesus’ torturous crucifixion, followed by His resurrection…each foundational to our faith. 

The Passion of the Christ came out in 2004 and since my conversion in 2006, I’ve watched it every Good Friday. Originally with my Dad prior to his passing and now watching alone (including this Friday), it is the movie that most speaks to the meaning of our faith to me (and I’m a huge fan of Chosen). What a gift from Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel, really a work of God.

When watching, I often imagine myself there, wondering what I would do, how I would react. Would I run or would I stay? I know that regardless Jesus would have still loved me. We have the benefit of having 2,000 years of history on our side. We know the end of the story. We know Jesus won victory for us. 

I think that Easter gives us an opportunity to start anew. Easier said than done, simple but not easy, Jesus laid it out for us in the:

  • Great Commandments – Mark 12:30-31, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 
  • Great Commission – Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Paraphrasing, Jesus directs us to love God, love our neighbors, and share the love of Christ…that’s it. Not mere suggestions, Jesus tells us specifically what to do. That’s our faith. In our crazy, crazy world, I think that if we all did more of that…what a difference it would make. 

I wish you and your family a Holy and Happy Easter. During this time, let us reflect on what Jesus has done for us while we rejoice in His glory. Below I’ve included a prayer that you may have seen before…I wrote it in 2009 and say it every day. It speaks to Easter. It speaks to the Great Commandments and Great Commission. And it speaks to me in my walk with our Lord. Enjoy. Happy Easter. 

Thank you God our Father; Thank you Jesus!!!

Dear Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, thank you for dying that torturous death on the cross for each one of us, including me. Thank you for rising from the dead so that I can live in Your Glory. God the Father, thank you for loving me enough to give me your only begotten Son.

Lord, thank you for my journey, every step along the way…the good, the great, the wonderful, the bad, the terrible, the ugly. I am where I am because it is where You want me to be. I am who I am because it’s who You are making me to be. I trust in You to make me and shape me for Your Glory.

Thank you for loving me, blessing me, showing me Your Will, showering me with Your Grace, and granting me Your Peace, which can only come from being in a place of Surrender, Gratitude, Humility, and Love.

Lord Jesus, help me to feel your Unconditional Love and Unconditional Forgiveness, fully internalizing and living these gifts, so that with Holy Spirit Boldness, using my God given gifts, not caring what anyone on this earth thinks of me, I can be all that You want me to be, in serving You.

Dear Lord, help me to always see Christ in All and be Christ to All, Living Your Will, helping others become the best versions of themselves, which is True Love…Christ’s Love. Please give me the strength and courage to evangelize my Faith, living the Gospel, sharing the Gospel, using words when necessary and often. When done for the Glory of God, the unimaginable is achievable.

I ask this blessing for my family, friends, and myself, in addition to all those on Your Journey….grant us peace. For all those seeking, help us find. For all those lost, help us see.

I ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

We Only Have One Savior

Do you ever feel like it all relies on you? You feel all this pressure, believing that if you don’t perform that it’s not going to get done? That without your efforts alone, failure is right around the corner. All is doomed. It’s you or nothing. 

I know that in my past, prior to me experiencing conversion and being on this spiritual journey, I felt like that most of the time. It was especially true for my business life, but to be honest it’s the feeling I had in other aspects of my life too. Unknowingly, I was playing the “savior”. 

Having matured in my faith and having a greater reliance on God, I thought that I had escaped the above. Then recently, through some “spiritual coaching”, I discovered the opposite…I’m still playing the savior. Maybe not in the same way as before, but my behavior would indicate that I still believe it’s all up to me. 

Some things from my notes from that coaching:

  • I need to work at a pace that is healthy and trusting in God, so I can stay in His peace.
  • I need to surrender it all to Him and stop playing savior; it’s more than I can carry.
  • Intercessory prayer is more important than human effort; it’s only God who can change hearts. 
  • The primary agent is God; need to turn all over to Him.
  • Need to say/pray, “Lord, I’m trusting in You”. 
  • There’s a difference between doing something “with” the Lord and “for” the Lord. He wants to work with us. 
  • If it’s going to be saved, it will be by God and not me. 

In a recent blog I wrote, “pray as though everything depends on God; act (work) as though everything depends on you”…often attributed to St. Ignatius and St. Augustine. I like this quote because I think it speaks to the reality of our lives as Christians. Having made us very uniquely and perfectly, God calls on us to use our God given gifts to the best of our ability…but then leave the rest to Him. 

Photo by Alicia Quan on Unsplash

Doing the above is surrender, which we’re reminded of in one of the first prayers we learn, the Our Father, “Thy will be done”. I think that’s my hang-up here. There’s a big difference between surrender and SURRENDER…in all we do. I’ve been talking about all of this for several years now. Truly living it is another thing. Simple, it’s certainly not easy. 

I’ve said before that surrender first requires absolute trust, knowing that God loves me unconditionally, that Jesus would have still died that same torturous death if it were only me on this earth. God made me with unique gifts and talents and put me on this earth for a specific purpose, all according to His grand plan, individually and as part of all of humanity. He wants me to be happy and fulfilled. Even with life’s challenges, God’s given me the ability to live in peace and joy. Lastly, the Holy Spirit lives within me. 

These things are true for all of us. And it’s only in understanding and internalizing them as truth that we can come to this place of surrender. I think I have when it comes to those things that require small “s” surrender. But those BIG “S” SURRENDER things. They’re something different. 

Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash

Humility is a part of it, understanding that it’s not really us doing the work, but Him working through us. Connecting it to gratitude, we’re then free to not feel the pressure of the outcome, but leave that instead to God…knowing that all happens for a reason, according to His grand plan.  

We only have one Savior, that’s Jesus Christ. It’s not me and it’s not you. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. I pray that I continue to grow in faith, becoming holier, and living a life of surrender, gratitude, humility, and love. It’s a journey for all of us. I pray you do the same. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

What Would You Attempt if You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?

My research indicates that one of the biggest fears people have is the fear of failure. What is it about failure that most concerns us? Is it…

  • Being rejected
  • Not being loved
  • Not being good enough
  • Failure itself – what it says about us

 

Why this Fear

So, why this fear? My experience is that we grow up believing that we have to earn the love of others and do so by trying to excel at what we do. Over time, we get trapped into believing that our “who” is our “do”, that our role is our identity. In other words, we believe our worth is in our performance, prominence, possessions, and personal relationships. Most people believe they have to “do” to be loved. 

I’m convinced that believing that we have to earn love creates in us a lack of self-love. We fear that if we don’t perform well, we won’t be loved. And at a very fundamental level, we all want to be loved; we all want to be accepted.

What Would You Attempt if You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?

I have a plaque on my desk that reads, “What would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail?” Think about that question. Pause and ponder it in your mind, “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?”

  • How would your life be different? (I know mine would be) 
  • What would you try?
  • What would you be?
  • How would the world be different if everyone lived this way?

If your biggest fear is failure (like most), it only makes sense that you would try more things and do them differently if “you knew you couldn’t fail”. You would exhibit more courage. You may possibly think differently about what direction you would go in. You wouldn’t be so tense or nervous when trying a new endeavor. 

 

What Would You Attempt if You Knew Nobody Would Feel any 

Differently about You if You Failed?

So, what would your outlook be on trying new things if you knew that nobody cared whether you succeeded or failed; that it would make no difference as to how they thought about you? 

Again, those who truly love you will never leave you. They’ll always love you for your “who”, not your “do”. And God our Father never sees you as a failure, nor does His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, dare I say our faults and our failings. 

 

You Can Do Something About It

TRY, RISK, DARE, and DO all that you feel called to. Who cares what happens…those who love you don’t. God loves you regardless. And nobody else matters. 

As always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.  

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

God made you for GREATNESS!!!

 

Mark Joseph