The Web (11/09/2023)

Last night at faith formation with the 6th graders, we were discussing creation, sin, the LORD’s will that we be reconciled with the LORD and be people true to our very being, our core, the LORD and the love with which we were created. And our experiential activity to drive home the lesson that what we do affects others was the web. We created a web by forming a circle and then tossing the string back and forth across the circle until a system of connections were formed. And as we pulled upon it and the others around the circle felt it, there was recognition of the truth we were discussing. And when I asked the class, so what have we learned and what have we experienced, I was delighted when one responded, “What I do matters to others and affects others.”

I love it when a plan comes together, when the group of young people not only learn the “facts” of the lesson but their application. And the application of yesterday’s lesson was simple, all that I do matters. Will I make it for the glory of the LORD, for the good of myself and others out of love for my LORD, others, and myself? And when I say for myself, it is not selfishness of which I speak, but rather a desire to be true to who I was created to be, to who I am called to be.

I hope as the young people go forward, that they carry with them their realization of their connection with the LORD and others. I hope they take it forward with them into their futures. I hope it helps them to make the difficult decisions in years to come. I hope it brings them the joy that comes from realizing the potential within each of us placed there by the LORD to become the “saints” we are created to be.

We know it isn’t easy. There are no false promises that it will be easy. In fact, one of the secrets of the journey is learning that while it isn’t easy, it is simple. Keep our eyes on Christ, walk in His footsteps for every one of them leads us to loving lives and closer to our destination, life in abundance with our LORD. The rules of the journey are really only two: love the LORD with our whole mind, and heart, and strength, and love one another as we love ourselves. If we all did that, imagine what would happen in the web we call the world.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.