self awareness, self talk, journey into self

The Most Essential

QUICK SELF-TEST:

[1] Have you ever gotten THAT CHANCE “to look in the eyes of your child” when he/she tells you what he/she feels? – or [2] have you even TRIED TO LISTEN – not to those spoken words but to such yearning HEART? [3] What about giving those words of approval when your partner has been striving for something he/she loves doing? OR [4] have you ever had the initiative to say sorry when you’ve been weak to be slow in anger?

If your answer is a TRUTHFUL YES, God could surely be SMILING AT YOU right now because you’re SEEING YOURSELF IN OTHERS!

If on the otherhand, you give some “philosophical” EXCUSES which ACTUALLY give a “NO” answer, you might then be needing some BRAVE SOULS “to HELP YOU REALIZE some perpectives – and I am praying po that today’s gospel could be one FEARLESS avenue which I hope you’ll GRAB REFLECTING ON.

Have you ever heard or came across this story “Work Like You Don’t Need the Money”?

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business & live a more leisurely life with his wife& his extended family.

He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work anymore. He resorted to shoddy workmanship & used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work , the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter & said, “This is your house, my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked!! What a shame!! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so much differently.

Many times, life would bring us to situation/s which we do not understand as it happens. At times, we feel that situations would ask us to do things which we cannot determine “what it is for”. Sometimes too, we would give that denying reaction: “why me”?

Sometimes, we are like this carpenter in real life. Because we feel that what we are asked to do is quite immaterial with what we want, we would resort to careless actions, putting less than our best into what we are doing; not minding much to strive to understand the things which we should value. The reactions that we give, just like Peter’s reaction in our Gospel for today, would make it more difficult for us to comprehend what we do not fully understand.

As this new series intend to tell us that “The miracle of God requires the action of man!”, let us be pre-cautioned by the carpenter’s tendency in this story where his substandard actions brought him the shock that he will have to live in the house which he built so carelessly.

When as of yet, we do not understand what things are for, let us instead have “the mind of Christ” while we are in the carpentry process: carry what it is that life is asking us to carry, deny our self-intentions while DISCERNing what the Holy Spirit is urging us to do, and just keep on giving out our best while we hammer each nail to build the house that we want to enjoy living-in.

We might be carrying the cross which Jesus wants us to carry while denying ourselves of our human desires; yet, if we will set our mind to that of Christ’s, we will soon enjoy the abundance that has been reserved for us as “a gift”! — sunset