June 2020

What Keeps You Up at Night?

It is a common problem. We retire to sleep, only to lay there with our minds panicked about the next day. The unresolved issues of the past day combined with the anticipated obstacles of the next, cause us to toss and turn all night long, barely getting enough sleep to think we ever closed our eyes. We did of course, then only to set the stage for a night filled with anxious dreams. The morning comes only to remind us of the stress of yet another day, and so the cycle continues.

The Vaccine of Society

When God called His first disciples to follow, they dropped their nets and left everything they knew behind to follow a new way of thinking with God. They were willing to leave their own logic behind and live as God wants, and God was able to heal the crowds from every disease they had. When we are willing to step out of our comfort zone and leave our way of thinking behind for God’s way of thinking, we too can be the agents of healing in our society. We can be the vaccine that heals the pain and suffering of our society.

Holiness

In a secular society that is focused on worldly desires, God desires for us is live holy lives as the Saints have done for more than two thousand years. The Saints lived lives dedicated to God instead of the world. They were willing to confess God in front of others, and they were willing to treat others with love, no matter how they were persecuted. Holiness is being willing to live for God rather than the world. Now is the time for us to live holy lives, and then we will affect change in others around us.

That We May be One

Shortly before His Passion Jesus Christ prayed “That they may be one as We are One.” (John 17.11) As Orthodox Christians we believe we are created in the Image of God, and His prayer for us is that we are united just as the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is united in oneness of mind, and we too are called into the same unity. During times of conflict and division, we must remain united to defeat the devil and those trying to destroy the Church. Nothing can separate us from the unity we have with God and each other unless we allow it. In oneness of mind we will succeed in our salvation.