I Take off the MASK!

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We learn to love each other when we begin to realize how truly unique and wonderful we are. Like seashells along the shore, no one is entirely alike, each is crafted with an imprint of God’s hand, each one different and special, each one valuable and loved! – Jocelyn Soriano

We all want to be special in one way or another. It is not enough that we are taken care of, we must be seen. It is not enough that we are loved, we must be known and loved for who we really are.

In our desire to be special, however, we try to imitate those who are well admired. We do all we can to be just like them, and along the way, we forget our own uniqueness and beauty.

God has given to each one a special beauty that only he or she can exude. We need not be dismayed that we are not like the ones people praise. In order to shine, we should only be true to who we really are.

Where I Fit In

I can’t help it at times, if I trip when I walk
Or I sing some notes out of tune.
I am not like ones you’ve seen
on movie scenes –
Lovely, witty and sweet.
I am not the shy underdog
with a heart of gold,
or that daring adventurous girl
full of charm.
I fall short trying to fit in,
where I cannot fit in,
trying to be beautiful,
trying to be good.

I look at me
and I cannot see
what He sees,
how someone could love
the likes of me.
But as I look into His eyes
all I know
is that I am loved,
every bit of me – loved.

And I fall for Him,
fearfully yet joyfully,
I fall…
I let myself surrender all –
my hurts, my doubts,
my anger, my insecurities.
And they all vanish
at the sight of Him.

I am moved,
I am thrilled,
I am healed,
every bit of me –
accepted and made whole.

Without even trying to,
He changes me.
Into His own likeness,
He fashions me.
And I sink deeper
into His affections,
where I lose myself
without truly being lost,
where I discover another me,
the one I’ve always
been meant to be!

And it doesn’t matter anymore
that I could never fit in
anywhere else,
for there I’ve found my place,
for there I’ve found myself,
the one He sees,
the one He truly loves!

Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. – Isaiah 43, WEBBE

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. – Harriet Beecher Stowe

At the end of our lives, we’d be surprised at what our biggest regrets shall be.

Our biggest regret won’t be that we have been kinder than we should have been.

Our biggest regret won’t be that we have forgiven someone who did not deserve our mercy.

Our biggest regret won’t be that we have allowed our hearts to trust someone who will only hurt us in the end.

Our biggest regret shall be that we have been less kind than we should have been.

Our biggest regret shall be that we have not forgiven someone who has sought for our mercy.

Our biggest regret shall be that we have not loved, and that we have hurt those whom God has sent our way to be loved.

“But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also. Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.” – Luke 6, WEBBE

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. -Matthew 5, WEBBE

Blessed are those who mourn, those who walk the valley of tears and have no one to lean on to when they cry.

Blessed are those whose hearts are broken, who have been failed by those whom they held dearest in their hearts.

Blessed are those who fall and have no more strength to carry on.

Blessed are those who have searched for so long and found nothing in the world to fill the emptiness of their souls.

Blessed are you. Blessed indeed is your sigh!

Blessed are you because there is a God who hears, a God who won’t turn you away when your cry.

Your heart has been left desolate of worldly happiness, and it is now empty enough for the King of Kings to fill.

You have been failed by many lovers and now you stand ready for Him who is Most Compassionate and True.

Your strength has left you, now you can be refreshed with power that knows no end.

Blessed are you, blessed is your sorrow. For it has made way for eternal joys to come and dwell in you!

Every suffering can be blessed because it hollows out a place in us for God and his comfort, which is infinite joy. – Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue

They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me but have this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly. – C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

There are times when we ask ourselves how long must sorrow last? How long must the poor and helpless suffer? How long must those who hunger yearn for bread? How long must orphans ache for a Father’s love?

We look around us and all that we can see is suffering. There is injustice everywhere. There is pain. There is grief we cannot even put into words.

We then look towards heaven and we wonder how far indeed could it be? When will that blessed day come when heaven finally comes down upon us? When those who thirst shall thirst no more? When those who are misjudged are condemned no more? When those who have fallen rise again and walk into the arms of a Father who will wipe away all of their tears?

We don’t know how long, and many times, all we can do is sigh. But we must believe that it will never be too long. God knows our pain and our cries. He will never come too late for those whom He loves.

How long, LORD?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart every day?
How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
Behold, and answer me, LORD, my God.
Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;”
lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your loving kindness.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has been good to me.
-Psalm 13, WEBBE

Stamp out the serpent envy that stings love with poison and kills all joy… Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. And possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. – Thomas Merton

Our hatred for evil is different from our hatred for something good.

Our hatred for all evil things stem from our natural desire for goodness. It is supported by our conscience and our sense of justice. It is remedied by compassion and mercy for our fellowmen who fall.

But our hatred for goodness is warped and unnatural. It is a form of envy and makes us lie to ourselves, to who we are supposed to be. What remedy is there to satisfy those who hate good men when the only desire of that will is to see good men fall?

Some good men may indeed fall. But by God’s grace they can rise again. Goodness always has a way to triumph in the end.

Let us therefore examine our hearts and pray that God may purify our thoughts and our desires. We are weak and sinful. But with God’s mercy, we can be healed. We can be whole. We can rise again!

The heart is deceitful above all things
and it is exceedingly corrupt.
Who can know it?
“I, the LORD, search the mind.
I try the heart,
even to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his doings.”
-Jeremiah 17, WEBBE

“The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.” – Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain