Return to Me

“Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.”

Joel 2:12

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, a time for all Christians to examine their relationship with God. Wherever we may be on our spiritual journey, God is calling out to us. God is speaking to us. God is asking us to return to Him.

“Even now” the Lord says, “return to me.” Even now. Where are we at this very moment? Where are we in our relationship with the Lord? Wherever we may be we are be invited to journey to the Lord. No matter how long we have been away from God or how far we have drifted from Him, God says “Return to me!” Lent is a time of homecoming, a time of journeying back to the One who has loved us from all eternity. The Lord asks us to return to Him with our whole heart — what else would be fitting? God gave us His very Self so it is only fitting that we return to Him with our whole heart and being.

Repentance is a major theme during Lent. It is not simply confessing our sins, but rather a turning back, a conversion, a transformed way of living. We are not simply “giving something up” for Lent. We are saying “yes” to God and “no” to the enemy. We are saying “I want to reclaim my truest identity. I want to live as the beloved son/daughter of God.” We must say this everyday. We will fall on our path of returning to God, but that should not deter us. God is waiting and He is patient. In fact, He runs to us and He helps us up, but we need to let Him. Even if we fall every day, the next moment is a new beginning. God remains there by our side. God does not give up on us.

This Lent, may we hasten our way back to God and when we begin to stumble let us never forget that God is there and He says to us, “Even now, return to me.”

Click below to watch today’s reflection.

Jesus Wills It

“Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
‘I do will it. Be made clean.’”

Mark 1:41

Have you ever experienced being denied something even though you know the person whom you approached could have easily granted it to you? Perhaps it was because they really did not want to grant it to you or maybe they knew they had authority and power over you and they wanted to make sure you knew that. Or, they genuinely considered it and discerned it was not what was best for you. This can be the same in our spiritual lives.

When a leper approached Jesus, he said to Him that if Jesus wills it, He could make him clean. The interesting thing is that the leper does not really ask Jesus to help him, but his nonverbals did. The leper knelt and begged. He risked being ridiculed to go among the people to reach Jesus. Most lepers were outcast and needed to stay away from people, but this one leper risked being punished or shunned even more just to approach Jesus because he knew He could do something that would change his life. Instead of asking, the leper made sort of a statement or confession of faith, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” The leper expressed his faith in Jesus and His power and authority. And Jesus did will it and He made the leper clean.

The Lord wishes to make us clean too, but do we believe that? Do we see the areas in our lives that need healing? What are the leprosies that eat away at us? Jesus wishes to shed light on those areas in our lives and bring healing, but we need to want it. In order to do that we need to have a relationship with Jesus. Only when we have a relationship with Him will we believe and know that He truly does will our healing and our good, and when our hearts know and believe that, like the leper, we can approach Jesus with all our problems and wounds without hesitation and trust that He will gaze upon us with love and compassion and say to us, “I do will it, be made clean.”

Click below to watch this week’s reflection.

Going to the Nearby Villages

“‘Everyone is looking for you.’
He told them, ‘Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.’”

Mark 1:37b-38

When someone popular is in town, people tend to like to go out and try to get a glimpse of them. I remember one time a movie was being shot in Philadelphia and roads were blocked off but those who knew about it would stand behind the barricades to watch. Those celebrities were in town to do their job, but they really weren’t there to see and greet the people. Although sometimes they might stop and give an autograph here or there, but the majority of the time their intention was never to go and spend time with their fans, those who admire their work, those who made them a celebrity. In contrast, when Jesus goes into a town, He deliberately goes to see the people.

While in Capernaum Jesus enters the house of Simon Peter, where his mother-in-law was sick. Jesus was told about this and He went to her, grasped her hand, and helped her up. She immediately got better and right after this she went and waited on them! This is one of many healings that Jesus performs there. But, this is something that we must think about more. Peter’s mother-in-law has been sick and has been lying in bed, and when Jesus held her hand and helped her up she was restored to health and resumed her life, playing hostess. The woman was sick just a moment ago, then the next moment she is entertaining! The power of Jesus’s touch restores life, not just treating the symptoms but curing and healing the person.

The next day Jesus wakes up early and goes to a quiet place to pray, communing with the Father. Then when Peter and the disciples find Him, they told Him that “everyone is looking for you!” So Jesus, gets up and goes to the “nearby villages” and preached, healed, and casted out demons. We are told He did this “throughout the whole of Galilee.” Jesus did not just heal His friends and their families, He healed whomever ask for it. Everyone was looking for Jesus, not just friends and not just Jews, but everyone. He went to the nearby villages, perhaps to places that are neglected and He brings healing. He did so because He said “for this purpose have I come.” This is our calling as Christians, too. We are called to go to the nearby villages and bring Jesus to them.

Where are the nearby villages to which we might be called? Our homes, our workplaces, our communities. Maybe to the streets where the homeless roam and try to make a home. Perhaps to the sick and those in nursing homes or those in prison. We are called to bring Christ to all, conduct ourselves so that when others see us and meet us they will be able to encounter Christ in us. How can we do this? By imitating Jesus. It was at the place of prayer and communing with the Father do the disciples find Jesus to tell Him people were looking for Him. Likewise, we must spend time in prayer, growing in our relationship with God, so that when we are approached by others, we might be Christ for them. Brothers and sisters, “everyone is looking for you.” Let us be on our way!

Click below to watch today’s reflection.