SURRENDER

SCRUTINIZE OURSELVES WHEREVER WE GO, WHATEVER WE DO

It’s good to surrender to the Lord whatever plans undone during the day! There are many things as planned for a day that we could not accomplish. We thought a whole day is enough for our 24-hour activities. But little we did not know that a day or two will just be too short for a purpose! In my case, examinations are fast approaching yet the more I read, the more that I become confused and nervous.

A lot of temptations bothered us and many distractions beleaguered our minds to accomplish things. Honestly, some task could not be done alone. We need more power to quench the force of stressed. We become weak and little by little we could run out of oxygen.  We became stressed to find the answer. For me, I found the answer by attending a mass.

 

“I will give you rest!”, says the LORD in my meditation during the mass. He added, “Come to me those who are laden, those who are weak, those who have crises personally, emotionally and spiritually”. These were the words that struck me most during the mass. Indeed, GOD is perfect. I felt that GOD is faithful even if we are imperfect. GOD is ready to accept us, good or bad. GOD wanted us to REST!

 

REST means Return to the LORD through Eucharistic celebration and Surrender everything by learning to Trust HIM. I couldn’t believe that GOD has telling me to rest. Perfectly, resting is one way of relaxing. It is a way of gaining energy in preparation for an unfinished job.

 

During my studies for examination, I could not overfeed myself with all the information I learned from reading the book. While reading, I trusted the LORD that I would not forget what I read and would be confident that He will give me the luxury of time to cover everything what I need to read.

 

A time with the Lord would be a nice solution to start your day. Pray for a luxury of time. Pray for guidance, protection and wisdom. Surrender to Him everything and acknowledge HIM that He is LORD of lords and KING of all kings. Trust HIM and that you can savor HIS LOVE from Him.

 

However, my faith changes every day. Sometimes, my faith is at its peak. But other times, my faith is as low as the deepest part of a hill and even not at the mouth of it – it’s like hell. One week after, I attended another mass at the same time in same place with the  same choir but a different priest. 

 

From the beginning of the said mass, a devil destructed my focus. I felt something different. The choir became boring. I could not worship nor honor HIM. The entrance song was really devastating. But I continued to pray to the Lord asking Him that His Holy Spirit will be with me and with the people so that everybody in the church could glorify Him. When the song “Glory To God” was played, I couldn’t feel God’s presence. People were not singing the song because of its unfamiliar rendition. It made you sleep while standing. Could you imagine? You could sleep while standing. It was not a sound that could magnify God contrary to the title of the song.

 

 Here comes the reading of the Gospel on that Sunday afternoon “the multiplication of bread and fish”. We know that it was one of the best scenes in the bible. It teaches us how we could increase our faith with God. However, when the priest gave his homily, it was a disaster. Yes! It was a catastrophe in the faith of the faithful. Do you know why? I slept for 5 minutes. After that I surreptitiously look at my seatmates and BANG!!! Some of them were sleeping and others were look sleepy!!!! When I looked around the church, 75% of the attendees were sleeping!!! I could not imagine but sighed…I just prayed to the Lord while the priest was still delivering a homily to give us His message and to bless not only the priest but also the people who attended the mass. I know the priest well because I attended his masses almost everyday in the same church (I had so much time during that time). He’s good. And I know it was not his fault why people were sleeping during the homily for about 15 minutes. It was GOD’s opponent. I know that God is just telling us to fight whatever the circumstances in our surroundings. It may be evil or not. He is telling us to be sensitive also not only on the side of the people who were attending the mass but also on the side of the priest while delivering his homily.

 

Every experience has always its lesson. I wonder why this experience happened to me, attending a mass with almost everybody is sleeping. Is it because I attended the mass at 2 o’ clock in the afternoon? Or is it the priest who is delivering a homily? Whatever the answers for that questions, all I could discern was we should scrutinize ourselves and ask, “How could we be better servants of the LORD?” Becoming a good witness to others is becoming a good servant to GOD.

 

If you are in that situation, what will you do if almost everybody is sleeping during the homily of the priest in the mass?