Are you in a pit?

Wow! What a weekend! I had the opportunity to attend the St Mark's Passion Retreat - boy was it great!

The theme was getting out of the pit, for more info, check out Fr Anthony Messeh's blog posts this week.  What a great topic to choose! We've all felt down in the ruts in certain times in our life, when everything just going wrong, and it doesn't seem like there is much hope for us - that nothing will change and that we're stuck in the situation we're in.  Everyone has felt that right?

I experienced something else this weekend when I sat with myself in quiet thinking about the 'pit' I was in and how I was to start getting out.  You wanna know what I found out? That I wasn't in a pit - that was my pit.  I was so stuck in one, that I didn't even realize it anymore! After sitting in quiet time and thinking "Man, these talks are great - God help me out of my pit.. Umm, just let me figure out what it is" Has this ever happened to you?

Sometimes we are so deep in, that we completely forgot what it was like to be outside! That was the situation I was in.  I thought I had everything in control, nothing was majorly wrong in my life, I could handle the small struggles that I was going through, and that I should just focus on helping others get out of their pit - wrong! What was I thinking? After speaking to a few other people, I found that I wasn't alone in this boat.  Many others have so casually 'decorated' their pit and not been able to recognize it from the outside.  "We were created to live in a palace, not a pit," Fr Anthony urged.  I don't want to forget what the palace was like! My pit was that I was in control of everything. My life wasn't in such a mess or anything, that I thought I could handle it on my own - and I think that is worse than any other pit out there.  The moment I thought I didn't need God that much in my life, is the worst feeling in the world.

In Way of the Ascetics by Tito Colliander, he states "To let in fresh air, we have to open a window - achieving hope is no different.. However weighed down and tangled in earthly fetters you might be, it can never be too late. Not without reason is it written that Abraham was 75 when he set forth, and the laborer who comes in the eleventh hour gets the same wages as the one who comes in the first."

Never lose hope! God tells us that the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - and thinking that we are too 'gone' that the Holy Spirit can't save us any more, is that sin. Are you with me? Most pits we get in, we feel that God has abandoned us. In mine, I had abandoned God - and yet, His love is so great that He will run to us no matter what..

I'll finish off with my favorite quote from this past weekend.  "You are a much better person healed than you are if you had been well"

Angels got nothin' on me!

I don't usually blog more than once a week, but this topic (as seen in my past few posts) has been on my heart for a while.

It really gets to me, when people try to assume they know how God thinks of them - because we only have a limited mind. God doesn't love like we love, nor forgives like we forgive. God IS love, and St Paul writes "when we remain faithless, He is faithful - He cannot deny Himself" 2 Tim 2:13. If someone hasn't forgiven you, or hates you, or thinks you're a lost cause - DO NOT translate this to how God thinks! Like I mentioned in my last post, for you to feel that God thinks you are the most important person in the world, you have to believe it first, then you'll feel it!

Don't believe me? St Macarius the great, of the early 4th century found this out! Truly believing this helped him lead a great life which he was able to feel the love of God and never lose hope, no matter what situation around him or whatever people said to him.  St Macarius writes, in Homily 15,

"See how great are the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon. 

But the Lord was not pleased to find His rest in them, but in humanity alone.  

Man, therefore, is of greater value than all other creatures, and perhaps

I will not hesitate to say, not only visible creatures, but also those 

invisible namely, the ministering spirits. For it was not of Michael or Gabriel the archangels that God said 'let Us make man in Our image',  but concerning the spiritual makeup of the human"

Oh yes he did! He just said we are held higher than angels! He is reminding us how much God loves us and puts us on a pedestal, no matter what the world thinks of us.  "If God is for us, who can be against us!?" Rom 8:31. St Paul continues to emphasize that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. 

We've all been in our pit and felt down and unwanted and it seems like nothing is going our way - trust in God! Where would the resurrection of Christ be, if there were no suffering on the cross? We commonly tend to focus on the cross and suffering in our own life, but neglect to see past it to the glorious resurrection that awaits us! 

God is like no one else! Again, God = Love. Your friends may leave you, your parents may think poorly of you, strangers may ridicule you - but please always remember that God holds you above all else, and to Him you are not just one in a zillion, you are THE ONE in a zillion.

Please feel free to contact me privately if you are struggling with this, or comment to encourage others.