A little wake up call…or a big one, I guess… <3

Posting late today because I made a run to Sam’s Club which is hosting special hours for the 60 plus crowd. 

In my pre-Covid life, I shunned senior promos like the plague. But now that we actually are living in a plague…I am embracing them. 

Oh how the tide has turned. 

I bought copious amounts of vegetables and fruits and found a friend to coop share with me so it doesn’t go bad before it is consumed. I had mentioned to her that my produce seems to go bad and yet we keep running out of chips and chocolate…odd…

So now I am sitting down to send you all a brief message. 

As I have been cleaning out bookshelves and such I found one I bought written by Francoise Fenelon called The Royal Way of the Cross. I am sad my type does not allow appropriate French additions to his name <3

Fenelon is a favorite of mine as I often find myself tuning in to a quote that resonates in my spirit and find out it was penned by this 17th century priest. He came under severe scrutiny and criticism by the Church, but I love this assessment of him by Pope Innocent XII who said, “Fenelon erred by loving God too much!” 

If you are going to err, I believe this would be the way to do it. 

I was reading one of the devotions last night and it could have been written to us today. 

It is entitled “On Prolonged Trials” and he talks about how God is Sovereign and He reigns with a permissive will. This alines with what I believe and what I see happening often throughout the history of Scripture and mankind. 

I want to share a few quotes because they are relevant to our current setting:

“We suffer from an excessive attachment to the world – above all to self. God orders a series of events which detach us gradually from the world first, and finally from self also. 

The operation is painful, but our corruption makes it needful. If the flesh were sound, the surgeon would not need to probe it. He uses the knife only in proportion to the depth of the wound and the extent of proud flesh. If we feel his operation too keenly, it is because the disease is active.” 

The Royal Way of the Cross, Francois Fenelon; edited by Hal M. Helms; Paraclete Press. pg 23

Fenelon explains that God loves us enough to tear us away from that which destroys us. Like a child who is wielding a knife, a loving parent will remove it – even at the vehement protest and wailing of the child. The knife would harm the child and so it must be taken away. 

“He only deprives us of the things we prize in order to teach us to love them purely, truly, and properly, in order that we may enjoy them forever in his presence; in order to do a hundredfold better for us than we can even desire for ourselves.” 

The Royal Way of the Cross, Francois Fenelon; edited by Hal M. Helms; Paraclete Press pg 24

Oh friend, I think that is enough for us to chew on today. 

Haven’t we learned during this world-wide shut down that many of the things we had placed as being of top priority were out of alignment? 

Hasn’t the inconvenience and the revealing of what is so strong in our flesh caused us to recognize how little we deny ourselves of what brings us pleasure?

Haven’t we begun to see that even the good things were things we loved with self-interest and self-gratification? 

Hasn’t the slower pace provided us time to reevaluate where we have been lax in applying the truths that we claim to live by? 

Haven’t we felt the conviction that our devotion to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and our love and care for others had somehow gotten placed a bit farther down on our to do list each day? 

I have. 

I have also been so very thankful that along with His permissive will, God is full of grace and mercy and when He has fully gotten our attention and we repent and ask for forgiveness….we are in that moment forgiven. 

We cannot lose our salvation, but even as saved people we can lose our way. 

He is always calling us back to Him. 

Praise His Name <3