SHUT UP, AND PEDAL

SHUT UP, AND PEDAL

There is a poem that likens our relationship with Jesus to two people on a tandem bicycle. At first, I sat in the front; Christ the rear. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there. I could feel his help when the road got steep. Then one day, Christ changed seats with me.

Suddenly everything went topsy-turvy. When I was in control, the ride was predictable – even boring; but when Jesus took over, it got wild! I could hardly hold on.

“This is madness,” I cried, but Christ just smiled and said, “Pedal!” And so I leaned to shut up and pedal – and trust my bike companion. Oh there are still times when I get sacred. But Christ just smiles, touches my hand – and says, “Pedal!”

-Jesus says, “Follow me, let’s go…stop thinking about it!”

- “He that follows me walks not in darkness, but has the light of life.” (Jn 8:12)

GOSSIP

GOSSIP

A woman once went to confession and confessed that she had been gossiping about others. As her penance the priest told her to go to the market and buy an unplucked hen and on her way back she was to pluck the hen, feather by feather and let each feather be carried off in the wind. She did that and returned to the priest.

He praised her for her obedience and he said, “Now, there’s one more thing to do. I want you to go back along the way, and pick up all the feathers belonging to that hen!” The woman was dumbfounded. The task was impossible. By now the wind had scattered many of those feathers mile away out across the country. “Exactly,” said the priest. “Now you see what has happened as a result of your gossiping. It is impossible to call the words back again, once you sent them on their way. Be very very careful what you speak, and especially what you gossip. It is generally impossible to repair that damage.

-  A great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is a small part…but it can be a word of evil.” (Jas 3:5-6)

-     If A and B are gossiping about C, usually the conversations tells more about A and B than it does about C.

PROCLAIMING THE WORD

This story is told by a missionary in New Guinea. An old man, a recent convert to Christianity, used to come to the mission hospital every day to read the gospel for the patients. One day the man was having real difficulty reading. The doctor examined his eyes, and discovered that he was going blind and would probably be totally blind in a year or two. After that, there was no sign of the man coming to the hospital. No one knew what happened to him. Eventually a young man found him, and brought the mission doctor to him.

The old man explained the doctor that he was busy memorizing the gospels while he still could see. “Soon I’ll be back at the hospital, doctor, and I’ll continue my work of teaching the gospel to the patients.”

v    The barometer for my own level of being evangelized is my enthusiasm to tell the Good News to others.

v    If I don’t give away to others what God gives me, God may rightly take it away again.

PROCLAIMING THE WORD

PROCLAIMING THE WORD

LISTENING TO ANOTHER

LISTENING TO ANOTHER

A huge truck got struck under a bridge. It couldn’t move backward or forward. Traffic was backed up for miles in either direction. An official from the company arrived and all sorts of attempts were made to get the truck free.

A few school kids were sitting on a wall nearby, looking at all this. One little lad shouted across at the officials, “Do you want to know how to get it free, mister?” “All I need now is a know-it-all, smart ass! I don’t need your advice, thank you.” The young lad was unabashed as he replied, “Just let the air out of the tires and you are all right.”

The man stopped in his tracks, looked at the kid and smiled – and then proceeded to let the air out of the tires! In his heart he felt that the kid had let some air out of his tires, and brought him down a bit – and he knew that he deserved it.

v Being full of himself, being a know-all, thinking of my know-how as being superior to that of those around me – that is the kind of soil in which the fruits of the Spirit can never be grown.

v Often my biggest problem is not the one I’m dealing with right then but my inability or unwillingness to ask for help in dealing with that problem.

TIME TO THINK

TIME TO THINK

I heard of a man who got caught in a blizzard some years ago. His truck left that road, and the wheels were just spinning; there was no way he could mover. It was getting dark and it seemed pointless to walk through the snow to seek help so he decided to wait the morning light before taking any action.

When he woke up in the morning his truck was completely frozen shut and covered in snow. It was actually six days later when he was rescued from the truck. When he was rescued he was asked what he did during those long six days. He replied with total seriousness, “I did an awful lot of thinking.”

v One wonders about the thinking and the thoughts of a person in such situation.

v It is worth reflecting on how my present life would look if I had time to reflect on it for six days.

v One of the slogans of AA is THINK, THINK, THINK.

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFENRECE

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFENRECE

One day as he began his daily prayers, a holy hermit saw passing by, a cripple, a mother begging for food for her pathetically malnourished child, and the victim of what must have been a very severe beating. Seeing them, the holy man tuned to God and said, “Great God! How is it that such a loving Creator can see so much suffering, and yet do nothing about it? And deep within his heart he heard God reply, “I have done something about it. I made you.”

v Jesus ascended into heaven and took the body He had with Him. Now He had no others hands but ours.

v To see Christ in others and to be Christ to others that’s the ideal that the Spirit within us can make real and possible.