Orlando Tragedy: How Will You Use Your Free Will?

To watch this video click: HERE

I would like to thank CNN for this report. 

After the shooting I have gotten online and I've seen a lot of anger and frustration going back-and-forth. It all seems to deal with whether or not we should ban guns, impose new gun control, how we should treat the LGTB community, how we should treat Muslims and how we should react to radical Muslim terrorists. It seems as though in someway the victims of this attack have been overlooked.

I would highly recommend watching this video. It's easy to press play and then immediately want to turn away and shuffle papers or whatever, but I would recommend pressing play and watching the screen and listening to each word.

I don't care if you don't agree with the lifestyles of these victims. These were real people with hearts and souls and dreams. These individuals struck down far too early in life are children of God. I have prayed and will continue to pray for their souls & for their families, friends and love ones. I know that there are many who are thinking how God could let such horrible things happen in this world. Fact is God gives us free will. One troubled young soul chose to use that free will to kill and hurt others. 

And so now we get to exercise our free will. How we each react is up to each of us. Will we react & choose to try and put love into this world or will we just merely argue? 

I know we all have deep passionate feelings on a variety of issues. But I stress that we all come together and discuss things and compassion. Anger will not prevent this from happening again. Love, compassion, mercy & understanding prevent this from happening again. I've never seen hate and rage solve a problem. 

I know this seems like a hippie pie-in-the-sky kind of response, but you can talk about gun control in a compassionate way. You can talk about terrorism prevention in a compassionate way. You can talk about immigration in a compassionate way. It is possible to disagree and have a conversation in a compassionate way. 

So let's not spend anymore time on this disturbed soul who chose to kill others. Let us honor beautiful lives that were taken down prematurely. This video highlights those people and I would highly recommend watching and praying for them. 

Let us come together as a country. Let us unify and realize that each one of us is a beautiful human being that deserves to be respected and protected. Let us come together in a compassionate way and work together to try and prevent a horrible event like this from ever happening again. 

Have a blessed day, an awesome week and a God filled life.

Playing the "Being Board" Game

Summertime is always a fun time in my house. It can prove to be a true challenge. Being in the 21st-century it's a bit fun to watch my children have first world problems. Like any other youngster from a lower middle-class family my children love video games. Myself I never had video games. I know I'm dating myself here, but I believe the closest thing I had to a video game was when my parents bought a Commodore 64, and I got to play "Where in the World is Carmen Sanediego." Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't want my kids to have fun, however I find it important to balance their screen time versus non-screen time in a ratio of 1 to 10. Every summer there is always that moment where I tell them that, "Hey it's time to shut the screens off now." Inevitably one of my children will flop down on the couch with a disgusted look on their face, their arms crossed and staring as if they have no idea what dimension they are in. 

Of course I will ask them, "What's wrong?"
"I'm bored", they will reply.
"Really?" I reply, "That's great! I have plenty of chores that need done around the house if you're bored. You can help me."
"No!",  They will reply with such fervor I swear I can feel the walls in the house shaking.

I will sit down with them and then explain that they have a multitude of things to break their boredom that day. After rattling off a long list of things that they can do and reminding them that they have multiple brothers, a sister and friends that they can play with they usually come around and run off and have lots of fun. So often my children see what's right in front of their face, and they do not realize the beautiful world that surrounds them. Funny thing is I see many adults who have the same perception of life. As human beings we want to belong. We find a group of friends or coworkers and we stay in that tight knit group. Venturing out and meeting new people is not a common practice I see in this day and age. Belonging to a group is great. It gives you a sense of belonging and a home away from home. All too often though we become satisfied and our close knit network becomes a closed network. 

Recently here in America we have experienced a horrible tragedy. In Orlando Florida 50 people were killed and nearly 50 more were injured in a terrorist attack. Social media is fired up right now over arguments of gun control, terrorists, LGTB and other such issues. When such horrible, drastic things happen deep rooted beliefs rise, and instead of unifying in supporting each other we seem to tear ourselves apart. One could easily sit and examine the tragedy and come to a variety of conclusions why it occurred. For me I see a situation that displays a lack of love and misunderstanding. I know many will read my words and scoff. I will be called a hippie, pie in the sky idiot or worse. 

It's quite all right I'm used to it.

Fact is, I'm a Christian, and to me the situation seems simple. Jesus teaches me to love. Jesus teaches that I should love everyone that I meet. I am Catholic, and we get a lot of flack, but my Catholicism teaches me that I should also love everyone I meet and discriminate against no one. Jesus preaches something that is rather countercultural, especially in this day and age. Jesus teaches me that I should love my enemy and pray for them. The world today says that I should get even. The world today says that everything should be fair. The world today seems like it's very much in line with the Old Testament teaching, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Problem is, that teaching is a bit misunderstood.

God told us, "an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth", so that we would know the maximum to which we could punish, not the minimum. God wants us to love. That's why he sent his son Jesus down to earth, to teach us to love. I am sure that someone out there at this point would remark that I am trying to tell you that no one should ever defend themselves.

That is not what I'm saying, and that is not what God teaches.

God wants us to defend ourselves against evil. God wants us to protect those that we love. Know this though, Jesus came to teach us to love our enemies. Some might be wondering how that's supposed to work in the world today. It starts by saying hello to strangers on the street, locking eyes with them smiling and saying hello. It starts with small gestures like helping  elderly women in the grocery store parking lot and helping her put her bags in her car. It involves helping those who are in need, whether that means giving money to the homeless man on the corner, donating time at the soup kitchen or helping people at the local food pantry. It means reaching out to that person whom you know very well or maybe very little who is gone through a major loss in their life. It means "pressing the pause button" when you hear someone say something you vehemently disagree with. It means holding your thoughts, listening to what the other has to say and then replying with compassion. I love America because we open the door to everyone. Even though some are scared and believe that we should alter our immigration policy right now we still allow immigrants from all over the world. That is a form of compassion. Do we need to be careful and make sure that we protect all who are here now? 

Yes, but I do not believe that that means we should just blindly close our borders to those in need with no regard for pain and suffering in the world. 

If we can put a man on the moon, create the Internet and solve worldwide medical problems, we can surely develop a system that will prevent evil from entering our country. 

Jesus asked us to love our neighbor. Why, because when you love someone it's harder for them to want to put a bullet in your head. You are no longer a faceless soulless creature which matters not if you are destroyed. If you love your neighbor and build relationships, you become a human being to your neighbor. You turn into a person that has a face, a soul, you become someone that matters. Does that mean that if you love everyone you meet and you pray for everyone you meet, that you will extinguish all evil in the world?

No it does not, but I think you will be surprised by how much evil would recede in the world. 

Think about someone you love very much. Picture them in your mind. Think about some of the beautiful times you've had with that person. Now, how would you react if you had a strong disagreement with them?

Would you treat them with utter disrespect?

Would you spit in their face?

Would you physically beat them?
Would you put a gun to their head and pull the trigger?
Would you chop off their head while they're still alive?

I believe the reason that Jesus wants us to love all and pray for all, especially our enemies, is that if we can learn to have a connection with our enemies, we can overcome our differences and if we can't we can at least disagree in a manner which is with compassion. There is so much you can do to a person if you have no compassion for them. 

If you do not have compassion for someone, they are no longer a human being to you, they are just another creature like a bug. How many times have you paused and thought twice about squishing a bug that was bothering you?

We have enough hate and contempt in this world. Really, how has anyone ever benefited from hate and contempt? How has anyone come to benefit from completely detaching themselves from society in general? Jesus wants us to breed love and compassion. He wants each of us to take the time to find value in every person we meet. Jesus wants us all to be interconnected. Why? Tell me the last time you felt unhappy when you were in a compassionate relationship with someone that was working well. At the end of the day God wants us to be happy. God knows that will be happy when we have loving compassionate relationships with everyone we meet. Loving someone is not hard. Loving someone you don't know isn't really that hard. What makes it hard is our ego. We want our way our idea to be right. We want to chuck the idea of pluralism aside and for everyone to believe and feel just like we do. 

The ideal that Jesus wanted us to achieve is not easy. We definitely have a lot of work to do. But God is not just hanging us out to dry, letting us figure it out for ourselves. Every day the Holy Spirit is waiting to enter your life. The Holy Spirit has gifts to share that can help you overcome anyone and anything. But like most things in life, you will never receive unless you ask. God doesn't hold anything back from you unless it is not good for you. 

I am sure that there are some at this point wondering why God would let horrible things happen. The answer is free will. God doesn't force us to do anything. God let's us choose. Just as a misguided young man chose to enter nightclub and kill at free will, God allows us to choose how we will react to it. Will we pause and decide to react with compassion, or will we let our hatred boil and respond in rage? Will we seek those who committed crimes and find justice, or will we carpet bomb cities looking for retribution?


When my children are "bored" because I won't let them play video games they have two choices, they can sit by themselves and stew and try and figure out how they will get even with me, or they can walk through the house, find one of their siblings, have fun and love. Ironically I never see them having any fun when they sit and stew, yet it only takes mere moments before giggles and laughing flow through the house when they decide to spend time with those they choose to love. 

Love is a choice not a feeling.
What will we choose?
Anyone can stick with what they know.
A brave person reaches out. 
Courageous are those who breakthrough barriers and spread love on this beautiful earth.

MT 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

What's Under the Wrapping Paper?

To be hated or disliked is hurtful thing. What hurts even worse though is when you know someone hates you or dislikes you, yet they put on a front that they absolutely love you. It's kind of like being five years old and coming downstairs Christmas morning to see presents beautifully wrapped with the most magnificent wrapping paper you've ever seen, only to find after you eagerly open them that they're merely boxes full of rotten trash. No doubt we don't want to be loved, but we all want to be loved truly. We want to honestly be loved. God is no different, if you show up Sunday morning and your tithing into the collection plate, but in the back of your mind you are despising the fact that you're giving money to God your gift means nothing. 

Know this, God can see into your heart always. Does God want you to help the poor? Yes, but he also wants you to do it with a loving heart. At the end of the day God wants you to love, and he wants you to give out of your love. It's really that simple. I remember reading the Old Testament and the story of Cain and Abel. Able would pick the best youngling from his flock, and sacrifice it to God full of love and thankful for all God provided. Cain on the other hand, he sacrificed from his field. He gave burnt offerings to God but he did so with anger in his heart. He despised God and didn't understand why he should have to give from his hard work. He saw burning his best crops a waste. 

You are a child of God, and on top of that God wants to be your best friend. Now I know many of us do not live a perfect life, or at least we think that our life is not perfect. For me I am a simple humble man. I am a sinner. I admit it freely. I am not perfect by any means. I am not someone to look up to. If you want to look up to somebody look to Jesus Christ. There many times I have held back from God and I am ashamed of that. I have so much. I have air in my lungs, vision in my eyes, sound in my ears, a heart beating in my chest. I have a beautiful talented wife that cares for me. I have wonderful children who teach me how awesome this life is each passing week. Do I want more? Yes, we all want more, but for what? I try very hard anymore when I find myself wanting really nice things, maybe a new car, a vacation and better house or whatever, I try to pause now and look at what I do actually have. When I examine myself what I have, what I can do, where I live, I am humbled. I am grateful to God for all that he has blessed me with. I find the more I open myself up to God, the more I realize how much I have, the more that I receive. The big secret that's really not a secret is that God doesn't really hold much back from you. Often times when we don't have the things that we want, not the things we need but the things that we want it, is because we are holding ourselves back not God. 

God is waiting for you every moment of every single day. God is waiting to spend time with you right now. Why, because he loves you, because he created you out of love. It took me a bit to swallow this, but I don't need to be here. God allowed me to be here. He created me because he loves. This idea only came clear to me after I've had a few of my own children. I've had people ask me before why I have children. Really, the only explanation that I can give that kind of makes sense is that I love my wife so much, and she loves me so much that we couldn't contain our love anymore inside ourselves. 

Yeah they're trying times being a parent. Sometimes you wonder if you know what you're doing. You wonder if you're good enough to be a parent. You worry till the end of time as to whether your child is going to be OK. However when I actually sit down and think about my children, my heart swells with love, pride and appreciation. I think about how I love each and everyone of them so very much, and how I can't imagine living without them.  I am so proud, not in a prideful way, but I am proud of who they are, sometimes because of my tutelage but many times in spite of my tutelage. I can't help but thinking God feels the same way. I am sure there are many times he looks down on me and the things that I do and merely shakes his head and plants his face into his palm wondering what I was thinking, but he knows. I wouldn't be surprised if sometimes he worries, though being God he knows all and sees all. Most of all though I can't help but think that he just loves. 

God gives so much, everything in life is a gift really. When I look at a beautiful sunset I see love. When I see flowers blooming in the spring, he made that picturesque moment out of love. In the winter when snowflakes fall like feathers from the heavens, and it's cold outside and you just want to huddle together and stay warm I see love. When I see how each of us are flawed I see love, because if we were all perfect we wouldn't need each other. If we didn't need each other we wouldn't have the opportunity to experience passion and love. We wouldn't have the opportunity to experience community. We wouldn't need community. We would be individual self-sustaining units that would be cold and compassionless like machinery. I truly believe that God made us imperfect so that we would have to rely on one another and through that we could learn to love.

As we all know love does not work in a vacuum. I know anytime that I've been in a relationship where I loved deeply and it wasn't reciprocated I felt empty and worthless. God loves you and he want you to love him back. But like any other great relationship, he doesn't force you to love him. He gives you free will, and lets you choose, because he wants to know you're choosing to love him rather than just loving him because you have to. 

God wants a pure loving relationship with you.

You can do whatever you want but I would highly recommend spending some hang time with God. I know this world is busy and fast. We live in a culture here in America where we've come to expect instant gratification for everything. Having a relationship with God is rather countercultural. God doesn't provide instant gratification. God likes to savor things, he likes to take his time. Just as you are not a creature that can be summed up in 30 seconds neither can God. God is infinite, so you can't expect to build a great relationship with him and truly understand him and little 30 second soundbites. 

By no means though should you feel obligated to sell all your possessions donate all the money to the poor move out into the wilderness and live as a hermit praying to God nonstop and studying God nonstop.  I mean if you wanted to and you feel God is calling you to do so go for it, you'll never have a more exciting life van doing what you're truly called to do. But for many of us God merely want to spend time with you because he loves you.  God realizes that for most of us living the life of a hermit is not what's best for us. God does want to talk to you every day though, that's why he wants us to pray to him every day. He wants to hear about the good, the bad and the ugly.  God wants to hear about your hopes and dreams. He wants to hear your joys and your sorrows. He wants to hear your thankfulness and your desires. 

Got realizes that this is a twisty turvy world. He knows how easily we can become misguided on our journey to heaven. That's why God sent Jesus his son to come and teach us personally. There were many, in the time that Jesus was on this planet, that were worshiping and loving the wrong way. Jesus came to teach us to not love and worship like that, but to also try and refocus those who had lost their way. Why, because God loves you that much he sent his only son and then did nothing when we tortured and killed his son. The day Jesus was crucified no one was killed by God. God did not command the earth to open up and swallow all the disrespecting, unbelieving people who tortured and crucified Jesus Christ. Jesus himself on the cross spoke to God and said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

That is perfect love.

So God is waiting. Right now God is waiting to talk to you. It's your choice you can do whatever you want. I will tell you this though, that talking to God is kind of like working out. It's one of those things that we usually say, "yes I'm out of shape I know I need to work out but I'm really busy today and I'll try that tomorrow." Problem is, tomorrow something comes up as well and so we don't do it tomorrow or the day after or the next week or the next month or the next year, and then we find ourselves sitting in the doctors office being prescribed 10 tons of medication because we've refused to take care of our body all our years. Instead of living life to the fullest we walk around hooked up to oxygen masks or hobbling because were overweight or in a wheelchair because refused to take care this precious gift of a body that we've been given. 

Same thing goes with prayer and going to church and studying the Bible. We tell ourselves, "yeah that's really important and what Jesus did for me is really cool, but I'm busy today I'll pray tomorrow. I'll go to church next Sunday. I'll catch that next Bible study when it starts." The days turn into weeks, which turned into years, and then one day we die or we are on deaths door step. 

Do you really want to leave where you're spending it turn it he up to chance?

God has given you so much. Jesus Christ sacrificed so much. The Holy Spirit is waiting to help you every single day. There is so much love God has wrapped up for you, but you have to open the present, and then he wants to receive love from you. He is waiting to have a long loving relationship with you because you are one of his beautiful children. I encourage you start or renew your relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit today. Hang out with God, spend time with him. Go to church. Give back love with all your heart. Hold nothing back from God. Trust me, you have no idea how much peace, serenity and happiness are waiting for you when you build a dynamic relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

So it's time now, walk down the stairs turn the corner and see the beautiful Christmas tree. The presents are wrapped gorgeously around it. Those are all presents of love waiting for you sit down, grab and open. The best is waiting to come.

MT 5:20-26

Jesus said to his disciples: 
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother,
‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

Do You Love Like a Good Cheeseburger?

I can't help it I love a good cheeseburger. I've tried cheeseburgers from a wide variety of places, and if I find a good one I do like to go and revisit because I love cheeseburgers that much. Because I love cheeseburgers so much, I have tried to find a great cheeseburger, or at least a very good one at a chain restaurant. That way no matter where I go in my limited travels I can experience the bliss of a really good cheeseburger. 

As people, we love things that we know, things that we know are pleasing. Relationships I find thrive when things are consistent and true. My wife loves me in a certain way. She cares for my children in a certain way, she cooks in a certain, way she keeps house in a certain way, she's very consistent and that's satisfying and builds a sense of security. In the same way I love my wife. I love her through my actions and I am very consistent in how I do so. When either herself or I realize that something needs to change we talk about it so said change doesn't come out of the blue. This way our family and our relationship can grow and mature, not stagnate, and we still maintain that consistency which a great relationship is built upon. That's the thing I like most about my God and my Church they are consistent.

God knows more than anyone else, that people do not like to get jerked around. Because he made us and because he loves us, God remains consistent day in day out, month in and month out, year after year. God even formed covenants in the Old Testament with his people," You love me and let me be your God I will love and protect you." Time and time again in the Old Testament when you see the Israelites betray their covenant with God, enemies would invade and conquer them. The Israelites would then repent and God would come to their aid. God's rules are simple it's all about love. I have talked with many that don't see that. 

God wants to be your only God. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with just you. Imagine telling your wife or husband, "hey yes I love you but I want to bring in somebody else."

God does not want you to use his name in vain. I can only imagine the strain my relationship would have if I walked around the house in anger cursing things in my wife's name, trust me it wouldn't go over well.

Your God who created you, made you what you are, gave you all your talents, gave you all the blessings, all the good things that you have in your life, wants to spend one special day week with you at least. I can tell you that if I don't spend some quality time with my wife each week our relationship doesn't work that well.

I could go on, but basically all of the 10 Commandments are there to build a loving relationship with God and with everyone you will meet on this earth. God is about love. God knows that love is the most important thing. He wants us to focus our lives in a loving manner. After the 10 Commandments were established, the Jewish people wrote even more "laws". In their zeal to serve God correctly they made things too complicated (as often men do). So to try and reset his relationship with the Jews and the entire world, God sent his son. He sent Jesus his son, a part of himself, down to teach us personally face-to-face. Jesus boiled the 10 Commandments down to two rules. One, love your God with all your mind body and soul. Two, love everyone you meet as you love yourself. Jesus came to fulfill the promises made in the Old Testament. Like Adam ruined paradise in Genesis by disobeying God, Jesus conversely came to mend that and to save all people. Jesus did not come to radically change what God wanted or expected, but rather he came to fulfill the promises of the old testament clarify things and to teach about love and how to love with compassion and mercy. 

As a Christian and as a father I take my responsibilities very seriously. Not only am I charged to act and have a certain relationship with my God, but I am also charged to teach my wife and my children the proper way to love not only God but everyone they meet. Anyone who chooses to be a Christian is charged with these responsibilities. As a Christian, God even asks that I share his word, that I share the teachings of Jesus with others that I meet, even those that I am not related to. God wants me to learn and to come to realize how beautiful he is, his son is and the Holy Spirit is. On top of that, he doesn't want me to hoard his beautiful gifts or beautiful knowledge. As a Christian I am called to share my faith and my knowledge of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit with everyone that I meet.

If I see a fellow Christian who seems to be falling away I am called to compassionately and mercifully help them get back on track. I am called to do all these things out of love, for as God loves me he wants me put love in this world. By fulfilling this and the other requirements of Christianity, God will allow me into heaven for eternity. However if I choose to knowingly teach his covenant wrong, to not spread love in this world, to spread hate, fear, anxiety and distrust in this world, let's just say it would not be good for me.

So that's basically it, God wants us to love consistently just as he does. I know many who is cracked open the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and read some of the stories of old and have been perplexed because God comes off as a mean angry tyrant. Please know that this is not true. When you hit one of those one of those stories I highly recommend talking to someone who has a lot of experience studying the Bible and who is studied theology. For me I am Catholic and one of the reasons I love my Catholicism is because the Catholic Church has been there since the beginning.  Peter was our first pope. Not only did we largely form the Bible as it is today, but our forefathers have been studying it for nearly 2000 years. But no matter what your denomination or preference, I would highly recommend consulting someone who has studied the Bible and theology to great extent if you have if you ever have questions about God's love and why he has done the things he is done.

Just remember this, God is there for you now no matter what you do or who you become, no matter if you're rich or if you were poor, no matter if you are from a First World or a Third World country. God loves all, he does not discriminate. God wishes for you to love all and to not discriminate. God's love is consistent and it is true. Though this world is rife with sin, God is still there waiting with open arms to love you. There is no such thing as a perfect Christian. Every Christian is just is able to sin is a nonbeliever. So yes, even as Christians have to humbly appear before God on a regular basis and asked for forgiveness. God doesn't expect you to be perfect. God just wants you to love. 

How about a cheeseburger? I think I'm in the mood for a cheeseburger right now. 

Mmm Cheese-burg-er!

MT 5:17-19

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

Don't Worry, Your Fingers Won't Get Burnt If You Let Your Light Shine

Being the father I decided something along time ago, that I wanted my children to be who they were meant to be. Not what I wanted them to be but what they were meant to be. As a parent it can be easy to impose your dreams for your children on to them. It's not something done out of malice. You love your children and so you try to force them to be which you think that they should be, so that they'll be happy and more importantly be safe and well taken care of. I think most of us would agree that each person is born with a set of talents. Being an artist one of the most grave crimes I've seen is when I see talent, or rather talented people, go to waste. I can't tell you how many times I've met a beautifully talented person, and because they've made bad decisions in their lives have walked down a road and become something they were never intended to become. What's worse is those who feel like, because they've made bad choices in their life, think that their life is over and that they can never get back on track. In my house I like to talk about dreams. I encourage my children to think, to dream. I looked him in the eye, and I tell them that I will never never told him the word no. Dreams are sacred. They are beautiful. I believe that dreams are inspired by God. So whether my child tells me that they want to be the president of the United States, a fortune 500 businessman or a millionaire YouTuber, I never laugh I merely encourage. I tell my children you,"You tell me who or what you want to be and I will help you get there. If I don't know we will learn together." I know how beautiful my children are. I know how special they are. I want them to be proud of themselves. I want them to love themselves. I want their soul to shine like a bright light because that's how special they are.

God is much the same. God knows you better than you know yourself. God knows what you're capable of, and how beautiful you are. He has endowed you with all of your talents. God merely wants to love you and help you become the most beautiful that you can possibly be. Now I think we can agree that the world is a crazy topsy-turvy place. The world is amazing but there's also lots of distraction. Moreover there's lots of temptation. I can't tell you how many times in my life I've been tempted to stop, shut up and never be heard from again. I can't tell you how many times as an artist I've been told my ideas were stupid. I can't tell you how many years I've wasted because I decided to listen to the world instead of God who was trying to inspire my heart. Know this, that God knows how beautiful and amazing you are, so too does Satan and he wants to make sure that you do not shine. Satan wants you to be afraid he wants you to cower in the corner. He wants the light of God inside your heart to be extinguished and never be lit again. He will use every tool in his arsenal to keep you from being a beautiful child of God. He will try to distract you with the sinful pleasures of the world. Satan wants to turn you into a pig that wallows in its own filth and eats the rotten. Satan wants you to choose to turn away from God so that you can join him in hell, where he can torchere you for eternity. Why, because Satan hates you. Satan hates you because you are a beautiful creation of God, and because Satan hates God because he wants to be God he wants to destroy everything that God has made.

It's easy to get lost in this world. It's easy to get distracted. Satan and his demons are professionals when it comes to distracting, tempting and persuading. Then they will double down by making you feel horrible for all the sins they tempt you into into doing. In those moments you consider returning to God after sinning, Satan and his demons will make you feel like you were unworthy. They will clutter your heart and mind and make you feel like you're too disgusting, and that God will never take you back. 

Here's the truth though, God he loves you. Just like a good parent, who always worries and hopes that they're lost child will return, God too loves you, and is always waiting to spend time with you so that he can love you. Am I a Christian? Yes, but I am no perfect man. I have sinned more than I can even recall. Just because I'm a Christian does not make me perfect. Being a Christian means using Jesus Christ as an example. Being a Christian means being a disciple. I am trying to follow the discipline of Jesus Christ. I still fall. I still sin. The difference between being a Christian and not being a Christian means that when I sin I realize I've hurt relationship between me, God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and just like when I betray a relationship or hurt a relationship with anyone here on earth I go and I asked for forgiveness. I go and I make amends with those that I've hurt. God is always there. He is always waiting to love you. He's waiting to help you become the best person you can be, that shines love in every step and you make through this world. God loves you so much he sent his only son Jesus Christ to this world to teach you. Jesus came and walked the earth to teach us all how to love. Jesus came to bring us hope. Most importantly Jesus came to save us when we didn't know we needed saving. Jesus came and he died for your sins and my sins and the sins of all. On our own we cannot reach heaven. Through Jesus we can reach heaven and God. It is only through Jesus' saving grace. You cannot earn your way into heaven. You can only get there through Jesus. 

You maybe wondering that with even all this said how are you to navigate the world. Well, God loves you so much, that he daily is willing to send another part of himself to you. The gifts of the Holy Spirit can help you get through anything. They can steer you clear and help you get through any traps that Satan and his demons late for you. 

Know this though most, of all you are loved. You are a precious gift. You are a precious creation of God. The only thing holding you back from God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is you. The greatest gift God gave you is free will, you, get, to, choose!

So today is the day the day it all can begin, if you choose. Today is the day you can start becoming that shining light. Today is the day you can decide to become a child of God. Today is the day you can begin the journey to see what God has in store for you. It all starts with you. It all starts with that prayer to God and asking him to come into your life. God wants a home inside your heart. God wants you to radiate with happiness and love. God wants you to become strong and shine so that you can be a guiding light for others who are lost in this world, so that you can help them to God so that he can love them as well. Do not hide your light. Do not hide your purpose. Do not waste your talent. Be that mighty city on the hill that welcomes all to God. For when we allow God to teach us and help us to become the best we can be we can become saints in heaven. 

MT 5:13-16

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”

TRASH THE JOINT! Wait, What?

This reminds me of a motto I used to have when I played in bands that played on different stages in different places. My motto was leave the stage in better shape than when you walked onto it. It was so easy to get done with the performance and just walk away with duct tape, trash, set-lists and junk left all over the place. Our performances were usually very physical and very taxing, walking off the stage or rather shuffling off the stage with whatever energy you had left over. But the problem is that when doing that you leave your mess to someone else. You leave someone else in charge of cleaning up after you. My thought was always that you should be respectful of the people who provided you with the stage and leave it just is clean if not cleaner than when you found it. The same goes with people, it's so easy to just go through your life and focus on your own desires needs and wants. Problem is, that does not leave for a very nice world. I find that when I walk through life focusing on only myself I leave a trail of trash behind whether it be physical, emotional or mental.
When focusing only on myself I plow through life like a speed boat across a still lake. Behind me I leave waves and a rather large wake, where I had once been. That wake in turn can create difficulties for others who try to pass along the same way. The world today encourages us to focus only on ourselves. However in a countercultural manner, God encourages us to love every single person we meet and to even sometimes deny our own desires to care for others. I find that when I do this an overwhelming sense of love and warmth penetrates every speck of my soul. It's almost like Christmas morning when I watch the people I love open the gifts that I give them. I eagerly wait for them to open and see what they have received and when I see the look of pure joy and satisfaction on their face I feel truly wonderful. God encourages us to love. He wants us to spread love on this world because love is truly the most important thing that matters. If we could all learn to love as God wants us to love we could easily ban sickness, pain, hunger and poverty in this world. We could actually create a little heaven here down on earth. Making others happier can be as easy as passing strangers on the sidewalk, locking eyes with them and smiling without saying a word. He can be as easy as touching base with that coworker that looks distressed and making sure that they're OK. It can be as easy as giving that homeless person the five dollars in your pocket that you really have no important need for. Changing the world and making it a better place is does not have to be any grand master plan. It can be a matter of many small, important and heartfelt things done.

The Quick Fix vs. The Grand Prize

Having children is wonderful, because as I teach them I learn. By teaching them I remind myself what's important in life. What's really cool for me especially is that my children don't learn any of the lessons I teach them the first time I teach them.  I find this is really cool because since I have to teach them certain things over and over again I get to be reminded in kind and relearn myself over and over again. This is especially helpful for someone like me who forgets things all too quickly. One of the things I get to teach my children on a regular basis is delayed gratification. I have to teach them that they have to deny themselves with they want to do right now and sacrifice, so that they will be happier and more well-rounded in the long run. I find this lesson extremely important for me as well seeing as how we live in a culture that seems to be based on instant gratification.

My seven-year-old loves to play video games. He loves to spend his time trying to build on Minecraft ,and conquer the enemies of Halo or whatever other video game he is trying to win against. One thing that my seven-year-old has already learned about science is that the quickest destination between two points is a straight line. Logically for him when he's ready to play video games what he should do is to move directly to the Xbox or the computer and begin playing with no regards to what time it is, what he needs to do, if he's brushed his teeth, if he's fully clothed... you get the point. He gets very upset sometimes when I ask him to do mundane things like eat dinner or get dressed or feed the dog before he plays video games. I have to remind him though that his happiness is important to me. I don't interrupt his journey to fun merely out of spite. I tell him that because I love him I require that he sacrifices some of his time to do things that are important so that he grows up healthy and well rounded. 

I have a 14-year-old that is in a similar situation with a different issue. He doesn't see the value in saving money. He recently went through eighth grade promotion and so now he's got a good sum of money burning a hole in his pocket. You can only imagine the amount of eye-rolling in deep sighs I received when I required him to deposit a good portion of that money into his savings account. He has learned the lesson of science and travel very well too. He has money in his pocket, there are things that he wants, he has the money so obviously to him the thing to do is to go and buy the things that he want right now. I find comical similarities of talking to my teenage son and saving money, and talking to grown adults about the importance of faith in their life.

Whenever I talk about spirituality, religion or faith to any of my peers I often hear comments in regards like, "God just is a buncha rules! God just doesn't want me to have fun! God just wants to have all my money!" Immediately when I hear these comments I see the picture of my teenage son with his disappointed face when I try to explain to him why it's better to put money in his savings account than to go out and buy all the Pokémon cards he possibly can with the money in his pocket. One thing I've learned in this life is true, that life is short. With all that I see in the media and the news today I have learned that you will never know when it is your time to go. 

Like saving for retirement many think, "Oh yes that is important I'll start on that next week. I have things though that I really want right now." Problem is next week there's something else just as important. The delay of starting to save for retirement gets put off week after week. 

God, faith,religion, spirituality are treated the same way. 

"Oh yeah that God thing! Yeah, I want to go to heaven. That's important, but I have so much to do right now. I can't make it this Sunday.  I'll do it next week, yeah." 

However next week comes and there something more important again, a game to go see, a party to go to, a beautiful day that just begs to be relished. Know this, one day you will die. You'll die and your soul will no longer have a home. It will need some place to go. 

This is the part where some people will get angry and they will say things like,"If God was really about love he would realize I'm a good person and he would let me in anyway." 

The fact is God is more like you, than you think. God loves all indeed, he truly does, but he only wants to let those whom he knows into his house.  Heaven is Gods eternal home. He created it for himself and for you. He wants you to be there, but let me ask you this, how many people, how many homeless people are you willing to invite into your home which you do not know? 

Right now are you willing to get up, leave your home  and go out into the street and take a homeless person by the hand whom you do not know and invite them into your home? I know that at this point there are some who are scoffing. I know that there are those who say I'm ridiculous. Seriously I would not have one problem inviting a homeless person into my home, but I would want to know them. I would want to get to know them. I would want to make sure that me and said homeless persons would have an understanding in that while I would welcome them into my home with love, that they would have respect for what's mine in how things were to be in my home.  

God is the same way. God wants to invite you into his home. He wants you in heaven. He loves you but he also wants a relationship with you. He wants to have an understanding with you.  Trust me the last thing God wants is to invite a bunch of people into heaven and then have them tear up the place because they don't have the same vision of what Heaven should be as he does.  And Heaven is his home, it's his place he created it. It's his, so of course he's not going to just let anyone in and destroy his home because there's a misunderstanding of what you and what he thinks heaven should be.

God his already been through this before. One of his most beautiful angels and a third of the angels that chose to follow him, were kicked out of heaven. You probably know him by name, Satan. Being a father is who's brought life into this world, I can only imagine the buckets of tears God shed when he had to kick a third of his angels ,which he made out of love, out of heaven. I am sure that God never wants to have to do that again, I know I wouldn't want to, so God has rules. The most beautiful thing God ever did for you, for me and everyone else was that he gave us free will. 

We get to choose. 

God lets us do whatever we want. Now if we want to go to heaven, yeah we got to play by his rules, but if we decide we want to do it our way then we have to pay the consequences. This is the part where some people will think or say, "Yeah but my way is not that bad." Problem is when we start doing "my will" instead of God's will selfishness creeps in. Selfishness takes over. Selfishness is not love, and Heaven is where perfect love resides. 

At this point some of you may be thinking, "Well I can't make it to heaven. I'm not perfect.", and you're right you can't make it. Nobody can find their way into Heaven. I mean Heaven is so amazing, it's so beautiful, it's so wonderful, it's so perfect there's nothing you could do on this planet to earn admission into heaven. 

But that's the cool part, you don't have to earn your way into heaven. You have to love your way in. I'll tell you right now being a father, my children are in my home because I love them, and after they reach that adult age when there out on there own, they will be welcome back into my home if they love me. I want my home to be filled with love, so I'm not going to allow people into my home who are going to bring in hearts filled with spite anger and rage and just emotionally trash the joint. 

God's the same way. God wants Heaven to be filled with love. In heaven there is perfect love. First he wants to love you. God wants to build a relationship with you. Because he loves you he wants to teach you the most perfect beautiful way to love. Will you make mistakes? Yes, but that's OK God doesn't expect you to be perfect. He knows you're not perfect. It's because he loves you that he's willing to take the time, he's willing to be patient. Because he loves you and he knows how awesome you are, he wants to teach you so that you can become the best you possibly can be. Then when your best buds with God and his son Jesus and you hang out with the Holy Spirit out of true desire he will be ready for you to come home to the paradise he made for you called Heaven, if you choose that's what you want to do. 

So...

You don't have to be rich, God has a paradise waiting for you.

If you have a relationship with God that's tight and you are sad, God will be there and he will take care of you. and he will lift you up.

If you were willing to castaway selfishness and have no problem being meek God will shower you with gifts of love.

If you desire to be right and true God will provide you with the answers.

If you decide to be merciful, to live a life of mercy, to show mercy to all those who are in need, God will shower you in mercy.

If you live your life following the Commandments of God, and when you make mistakes, with all your heart ask for forgiveness, and love God and put love into this world you will see God in Heaven.

If you work to bring God's version of peace on this earth you will see God in heaven.

If you walk through this life and you are persecuted because you follow God you will be blessed. God will love you and you will spend eternity in heaven specially blessed.

If people lie about you, spit on you, mock you,  kill you because you stand up for the word and the love of God, God will specially bless you and you will find special treasure in heaven. God will not forget. 

God will reward you. Just like God has specially rewarded all the prophets that have come before you and who tried to help His people who have been killed because of God and his love and his word.

So maybe you're wondering, "How do I get started?" If you're at step zero and God is not in your life at all talk to him. That's all you got to do. Prayer is just like talking. Pray to God and ask that he come into your life. Pray to God tell him you want to relationship with him and his son and the Holy Spirit. Next step go to church this might be weird. Ask that person at work or at school or whatever who you know has faith in God to take you to church. I find going to church for the first time helpful if you go with somebody you know.  If you don't know somebody just go. I've had people tell me that when they tried going to church for the first time they were treated poorly, don't sweat this. If you meet Christians that are rude remember Christians aren't perfect. Christians make mistakes to. Know this, Satan will tempt you to not have a relationship with God. Satan is great at putting up obstacles so that you do not want to go to church. Satan doesn't want you to build a loving relationship with God. Satan wants you to live a life without faith so that you can come hang out with him in hell, so he can make every single one of your worst nightmares a reality for eternity. Don't fall for Satan's trap. Find a church that makes you feel like you are home away from home. Once you find a church that fits you, speak with your pastor or your priest, let them guide you and educate you, so that you can make the most of your relationship with God. One of the things that you will do is that you will be baptized. If you have never been baptized and you go to a Christian church and they do not want to baptize you, find a new church, getting baptized is huge! It's a requirement. 

Most importantly though as you proceed with your journey in developing an awesome relationship with God Jesus and the Holy Spirit remember to breathe. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Remember God is love. Jesus is love. The holy spirit is love. They love you and they want to spend eternity with you. So relax, pray, lay it all out there for God. Pray to Jesus, tell him how you feel. If your mad, tell him. Being mad isn't a sin. Tell him if you're mad, you're sad or you're happy. He wants to share everything with you because he loves you. 

Go to church, go to church every Sunday. People balk at this one, but I'll tell you going to church is like having the most awesome support group ever. That's why you want to make sure that you find a church that makes you feel like you're at home. Go to church and listen and learn. Before the service starts pray to God. Pray to the Holy Spirit ask them to show you one thing to take away from that service. It could be something in one of the, hymns or one of the scripture readings, something from the homily or the sermon something will strike you. My best advice, and I know this will sound really geeky, but take pen and paper with you. Take notes and if something strikes you write it down. Become active in the church that you choose donate your time. The more you hang out with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the fellow members of your church the more you will feel filled with love and the happier you will be. Now you don't want to sacrifice your other important relationships. If you have children you want to make sure that you still care for them and their needs. You don't want to neglect your responsibilities at work because you're spending all your time at church. God doesn't want you neglecting any of your responsibilities. If you're married and you have a wife or a husband your newfound zeal may come as a shock to them. Not everyone is at the same place in their faith journey at the same time, so remember be like Jesus and love your way through everything.

As you go out into the real world, the world that is cold and focused on selfishness, remember Jesus is your role model. I highly recommend reading the Bible every day. What I like to personally read is the Gospels. They're very easy to digest just easy to understand and can do wonders for you as you negotiate through your day. As you journey through your every day life and you feel sin trying to tempt you look to Jesus. Pray to Jesus. Use Jesus, who is your role model on how to deal with difficult people and difficult situations.

All these things and more will help you to develop a wonderful rich relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And just like with anyone else when you have a good relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit you will bear fruit from that relationship. The better your relationship gets with them the more peace, serenity and happiness you will feel in day-to-day life no matter what gets thrown at you. You will find yourself journeying closer and closer to heaven. Because really that is the goal, in being a Christian, you are to become a saint and reside in heaven. 

Your time here is short how, do you choose to spend it? What's your retirement plan? What and how much are you willing to sacrifice, and for what? God loves you and he's waiting for you. Now you get to choose, but be careful don't delay. Today is the day you get to start planning for eternity.

Gospel MT 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 
He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”