July 6, 2008

"Unless we are happy with who we are, we'll never be happy with what we have." -- Julie Hanna

One of the mottoes in the AA program is "Let go and let God." This came to me as I thought about this week's gospel. We can choose to live our lives by the world's standards or by God's way in the
Spirit. We have so much noise and pressure coming at us sometimes that it's hard to find any peace. Our nation was built on love of God and neighbor. Our parents and grandparents knew the meaning of sacrifice for the common good. The media and advertising keep tellilng us we need the latest phone, doll, or gizmo to make us happy; and in a few months it's something else.

Jesus is calling all of us to come and rest in Him, let Him lead and find peace in ourselves, our families and our world. If we live in the Spirit, we get back to our true selves--the people we were created to be. The world is not all bad, but we have to learn to discern and separate what is important for living a good life and what is not. God wants us to laugh and play and enjoy each other and the world He created for us.

To really be free, we need to let go of some of the"stuff" and let God lead us. Then we will know what true freedom is.