Tonight dh and I are working on another NFP talk. A friend who does RCIA at a local parish is doing the session on the church's teaching on contraception and he wanted us to come speak. As I went into my computer files to look over past talks and what would apply, I saw a file title "for my blog". When I opened it, I "fell in love all over again." The file was dated Jan. 14th, 2009, and I recall that day I received a fabulous email from my uncle and tucked it away for my future readers. I wasn't public with my blog yet, but I knew if it was something I needed to hear, than there were others that would need to hear it as well. I believe it is from daily reflections from Max Lu.cado or something similar (uncle isn't Catholic).
You’re not reading this by accident. No, God knew before you were born that you would be here in this moment. He planned to get your attention for just a few seconds so he could say this to you: “I’ve seen every hurt in your life, and I’ve never stopped loving you. You matter to me. I love you more than you will ever know. I made you to love you, and I’ve been waiting for you to love me back.”
God is saying, “I want the rest of your life to be the best of your life. I’m with you, and I’m for you. I want to save you from your past. I want to save you for the purpose I made you for. And I want to save you by my grace. If you’ll let me do that, I will give you peace with me, peace of me, and peace with other people. But you’ve got to open the door and receive the gift.”
If you gave me a Christmas gift and I never opened it, you would be disappointed. And it would be a worthless gift because I don’t receive the benefit of a gift I never opened.
Jesus Christ is God’s Christmas gift to you. Yet some of us have gone year after year and never opened the best gift of all – God’s gift of salvation. Why even celebrate Christmas if you’re not going to open the biggest gift? It doesn’t make sense to leave unwrapped the gift of your past forgiven, a purpose for living, and a home in heaven.
Jesus Christ says to you, “I can replace the frustration in your heart with peace. I can replace the guilt, resentment, shame, and grudges with forgiveness. I can replace the worry and anxiety with confidence and faith. I can replace depression or despair with hope. I can replace emptiness with meaning and purpose. I can replace confusion with clarity. But I’m not going to break down the door of your heart. You’ve got to invite me in.”
God says: “It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from, if you want me and you are ready to come in, the door is open.”
I am on the journey we are all called to-to accept God's will and perfect love. Whether I am white knuckling it with my eyes shut tight or standing up with my arms outstretched enjoying the ride, I try always to let God be the driver and not bail out the side when there are bumps (like IF!). On good days, I trust He won't run me into a tree. :)
3 comments:
Love it! Thanks for sharing!! And nice to meet you!
Thanks for sharing that. Out of curiosity, are you being asked to share the infertile perspective on contraception? (I assume that the average couple biased in favor of the pill would think, "That's easy for you to say!" But I don't really know. I'd be really interested to hear if churches are using the infertile experience to teach.)
Misfit, some friends of ours, the husband runs RCIA at a local church, they have heard our story often at the quarterly NFP wine and cheeses we do together. He liked how being converted on the church's teaching of the pill and premarital sex (see my God bat post), led me to learn CrMS to truely treat my endo, which lead to us finding out about all the other IF issues, treating them and then being able to have our son. He thought it was a good testament to following the church's teaching and the blessing and the graces that come from "untying God's hands;" we did mention how the pill can cover symptoms until you go to ttc. Does that answer your question? Our was really the testimony part and he went into detail on the teaching after, though we did address how nfp differs from birth control.
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