By Christopher Lenart, a parishioner at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish, Naperville, who is posting once a month, every month, on this blog, writing about faith-related matters, To contact Christopher, email him at clenart@comcast.net. To learn more about him, go to his website: https://www.disabilityawareness.us/
Ever wonder what God has planned for us in terms of our lives? I know that we have free will, so we might not do what He planned. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. All of us want to get to heaven, but we always mess up somehow.
Sometimes we mess up with our actions, or sometimes we mess up with our words. For me, it’s my words. I usually think my notes sound all right in my head, but later I find out that I just messed up, and the person took it the wrong way. Everything has consequences, but we don’t know what they are until it happens. It is like rolling dice: you don’t know what numbers you will get until you roll.
God wants the best for us. I imagine that He is looking down on us and saying, “Don’t do that. Please don’t do that.” Then we do the thing that He didn’t want us to do. He must have heartburn every single second. I am just kidding.
I am turning the big 50 on Friday and wonder how I am doing in God’s eyes. It is scary to think I just messed up again. What is wrong with me? Am I that selfish in my desires? We think that the saints were pure, and then, we hear that they had flaws, just like we do. So, what made them saints in the first place?
I think that is a great question to ponder. I think they just confessed and tried again. I think we all confess things over and over. I usually go to the same priest, and he knows what I am writing after a few letters. That is so crazy, but that gets me out of the confession quicker.
Sometimes I think about my life, and I had many hurts and trials during my life. I am not trying to make excuses for my sins, but I believe that God sees everything that we do and understands us. I am not saying it is okay to kill or have lust in our hearts. We should know both are sins.
What point am I trying to make in this post? I think it is to look at our lives with a new set of lenses. We are so busy that we do not think about what we are doing. Sometimes I think we keep busy, so we don’t think about what we are doing. If we keep busy, maybe God won’t see what we are doing wrong, so we can get away with it. But God knows everything. He is not like our parents when they didn’t catch us. So, we have to try harder to do the right thing.