Does God Disappoint Us?

A loving God would not place desires in our hearts, and dreams in our souls, if He did not also offer us opportunities to fulfill them, or offer opportunities for greater things, thereby surpassing the dreams we began with.

I have spoken to many people who worry that they will never see their dreams fulfilled. I offer in response a word of encouragement and a word of caution.

To encourage, I say that God knows your heart, and will not sneak opportunities past you. When the time comes for a choice that will decide your destiny,—and don’t kid yourself that such choices come only rarely—God will make the time to act clear, and He thus will pass control of your life into your hands…provided your eyes are open and you are ready to act boldly. And here is where the word of caution comes in.

We are not put on this earth to be made happy by God. God wants us to be happy, yes, but happiness is merely the result—not the goal—of our mission: growing closer to God, becoming holy, cultivating spirits strong and passionate, but also light and loving. And if we do not devote ourselves—at least as best as we are able—to these pursuits, all the promises necessitated by God’s loving nature are not as clearly guaranteed; this is not because He would refuse to offer opportunities for fulfillment to any of His children,—He will always offer them—but because if we are not prepared to face our destinies when they approach, we may not recognize them, or find ourselves too fearful to respond properly.

But if we are always working toward self-improvement with God’s help, then we just have to be patient, and continue to live in hope.

Hopefully,
Joezilla

Christmas, The Bishop's Wife, and True Service

Hello there, and Merrrrrrry Christmas!

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In case you were wondering, dear reader (if, in fact, there is any dear reader out there to be wondering), the seemingly unintelligible jumble of symbols above is my patented new Santa Smiley (all rights reserved, of course!). If you're puzzled by this moniker, look at it sideways and everything will make sense. Ho-ho-ho!

Today I just watched the wonderful Christmas film The Bishop's Wife, starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young. It's a wonderful movie that could be best characterized with a single word: charm. The actors are charmingly entertaining—funny when they're supposed to be funny, touching when they're supposed to be touching, and at all times quite convincing in the clever little plot the movie relates.

It is a great film from a great era of film-making, but this is not what puts it over the top. On the contrary, the greatest charm of this movie comes in its superb and enlivening message.

I firmly contend that the best entertainment is the kind that makes us want to be better people. The best book is the book that, upon its finishing, causes the reader to throw it to the ground, jump up in a fit of ecstasy, and embark on some great adventure that will somehow better the world. The best song is that which grants its listeners a supernatural sort of energy upon hearing it or even thinking of it, the kind of song that galvanizes the dazed denizens of the doldrums (we've all been there) and renders them ready for righteous battle on some unknown front in the war of their own life. And the best movie is the kind that gives us a larger view of life—one that, by means of its broadness and great perspective, provides us with creative new solutions to old problems...as well as the hope and inspiration to carry out such ambitious endeavors.

The Bishop's Wife is just such a movie. Its headlining actor, Cary Grant, plays the role of the angel Dudley (what a great name for an angel!) with a paradoxical mix of vivacity and restraint—two typically contrasting traits effectively united by a peaceful air of sheer goodness—showing us a character who has an overwhelmingly positive effect on everyone he encounters. We can't help but be won over by Dudley as we see him in action, spreading faith and honesty with every word he utters and every move he makes. And there's a part of each one of us that longs to be like him—to be connected to God with such a firm bond as to walk each day with supreme confidence as we do good work.

Of course, there is more to this movie than merely an inspiring character (which is easily enough to carry a movie on its own—see Jimmy Stewart's Harvey if you need some convincing). The greatest message of the movie arrives in its final scene, as David Niven's Bishop Henry delivers one of the most poignant, effective, and spot-on Christmas messages Hollywood has ever produced. Here it is, in its entirety:

Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.

But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled—all, that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the Child born in a manger. It's His birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share: loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched-out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.

What we see here is a call to action, in the greatest of spirits. It is a call to service, but not the kind of service we typically think of. The sermon does not explicitly tell us to go to Africa and feed the starving children (although many do, and render the world a great gift in doing so). It does not exhort us to go and build homes for disaster victims (although many do, and can joyfully make an irreplaceable difference in the life of a fellow human being in doing so). It does not command us to spend our every moment engaged in feeding the hungy at soup kitchens (although many do, and help provide a chance at success to countless souls in doing so). No, the sermon does not call us to anything that the world would call "great." It calls us to a different kind of service, a more fundamental one that can begin anywhere and continue into eternity—and, if put into practice, will change the world in a truer way than any work of human hands ever could.

This type of service begins in the heart, and consists of one simple step: Conduct yourself with love. Love for God, love for other people, and love for yourself. Mother Teresa summed it up quite well when she told us to Do small things with great love. If we conduct ourselves with love, then we will always produce good fruit in the world. Love the people you have contact with. Have faith that God made them and put them in your life for you to love them, as He Himself loves them. Love the places you frequent, the vehicle that transports you, the work that sustains your life. Love your church and your God, and don't ever forget to love yourself. If you find yourself looking in the mirror and finding that there isn't much to love, do two things:

1. Realize that as a creation of God, you are fundamentally worthy of love, no matter how bad a person you have been. St. Paul wasn't lying when he said that Nothing can separate us from the love of God. You deserve to be loved by yourself, because you are already loved by God—no matter what! Right the wrongs and move forward in confidence.

2. If there are flaws in your character that seem unlovable, change them! Resolve to change them, out of love for Him Who created you, out of love for those who must deal with your flaws, and out of love for you, who deserve to enjoy a higher, more successful existence. Choose to be dynamic.

"Conduct yourself with love." Of course, this is not a new message. Certainly it appears countless times in the New Testament. But seeing a movie like The Bishop's Wife is a great modern wrapping of this timeless message, a message that seems all too forgotten in the world.

This Christmas, and all the time, I commit myself to doing this kind of service as much as my fractured human awareness permits me—and I hope that you will do the same, dear reader.

I would like to invite you to join me in renewing a little Yuletide tradition that I previously kept in my personal journal, but sadly neglected to continue last year. The tradition, which I'm glad to have you aboard for, is that of writing and reading a prayer at Christmastime. Regardless of whether or not you are "a praying man," to quote George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life (it's a wonderful movie), I invite you to read through this. If you believe in God, then you know that praying this will do good things for the world. If you don't believe, then what's the harm in saying a few words? It would mean a lot to me. Here, let's begin:

Dear Father in Heaven,

On behalf of humanity, thanks for the awesome Christmas present! You came to us as a man, entering this world by the same way that all of us enter, coming as a baby. In the beautiful birth of that baby, You were and are the greatest Christmas present of all. Help us to realize that. Help us to listen deeply to the carols that tell of your birth, and grant us insight into what your coming really means for all of us and for our salvation.

We pray that you will not let us forget the small changes of mind and heart and hand that can make the world's difference for the person next to us—the smiles on our lips, the warmth in our tone of voice, and the fire of love in our hearts. May Your spirit ignite and rekindle that fire in our hearts, and may we be open to this nourishing flow that connects our human hearts with Your sacred heart.

And may we never forget the sacrifices of those who make us happy at Christmas and throughout the year—sacrifices that imitate the ultimate sacrifice you made for us up on Calvary hill. That was the final act of the life that began on the first Christmas night. Let us not forget that, either.

But most of all let us not forget that the life that began on that first Christmas still continues to this day—and the jolliest Christmas spirit is merely a reflection of that original Gift, the Gift Who changed the world. Let our faith in You nurture a servant's heart in all of us, that we may serve the world each in our own way, and help our fellow humans to have a Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

We ask all of this in Your name, Jesus.

AMEN.

Merry Christmas, and here's to the best New Year yet!

With Christmas Love,

Joezilla

Today is Tomorrow

“It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.” So testifies Phil Conners, world-class meteriologist and full-time jerk, in one of his lowest moments in the wonderful movie Groundhog Day. Whether or not we agree with Phil’s prediction tells us a lot about how we are currently seeing the world.

Phil’s is a unique tale; he goes to wintry Punxatawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities, dutifully does his drudgery, then goes to sleep. He wakes up the next morning to a cold Punxatawney morning…a cold and familiar Punxatawney morning. Yes, as you probably already know (unless you have not seen the film, in which case you are seriously missing out), Phil is forced by the powers-that-be (in this case, it’s writer-director Harold Ramis) to relive the same day, over, and over, and over again.

How long is Phil trapped in this temporal wasteland? Months, maybe. Probably years. He’s there long enough to learn the quirky backgrounds of almost every citizen in Punxatawney, long enough to become a semi-pro piano-player, and long enough to become a trilingual aficionado of classic literature. And oh yeah, long enough to devote himself to a noble purpose—in fact, the noblest purpose anyone can dedicate himself to: self-improvement for the sake of others. But before he does any of that, he first attempts to wring out every inch of “fun” that he can from Punxatawney. It feels great at first, but soon the superabundance of, well, pretty much anything he wants, reveals the true emptiness of temporal pleasures.

The turning point comes when Phil talks to his pretty (and practically perfect in every way) producer, Rita. Convinced of his predicament, Rita offers this bit of advice: “Perhaps it’s not a curse. Maybe it just depends on how you look at it.” Phil promptly wakes up the next day and brings his co-workers coffee and pastries to enjoy amidst the bustle of their morning labor. In doing so, he begins the long and determined climb out of the hole he’s dug for himself, and at this point demonstrates a fundamental and potentially life-changing truth: kindness is a universal language. People worry too much about social niceties and clever turns of phrase, but Phil shows that an action fashioned from consideration and performed with kindness needs no fancy social wrapping. Be good, and everything else falls into place.

“As time goes by,” as they say, Phil builds himself into a true man—good-hearted, disciplined, and well-rounded (though, importantly, he remains as funny as ever). He takes up piano. He reads. He devotes himself, wholeheartedly it would seem, to serving others. Not a bad idea, Phil! It culminates in an epic day that seems to contain everything—music, dancing, snow-sculptures, a couple of saved lives…

Phil wakes up the next morning, and things are different. Can you imagine what it might feel like to live the same day over and over again for years, and then to wake up to a new one? Phil definitely shares the epithet of Dr. Manette in A Tale of Two Cities: RECALLED TO LIFE!

It should give us pause to realize that the universe, blessedly, doesn’t actually play tricks like that. We will go to sleep tonight, and we will wake up tomorrow, never to set foot on this date again. Perhaps that makes us want to seize this day, and that’s great. But more than that, I think it should make us appreciate the fact of tomorrow.

Think about it. You will wake up tomorrow, and there will be a whole new day ahead of you. What’s best, you will be able to act in that day, knowing that your good actions will have lasting consequences. Do you realize what a difference you can make in this world? Such great potential streams out of your every step; so be happy, wherever you are! As Phil says, incredulous, in the movie’s cheery final moments, “Today is tomorrow. It happened.” We all might benefit from saying that when we wake up to bright skies, gray or otherwise, in the tomorrow that never forgets to come. Today is tomorrow! Remember that!

And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Happy Groundhog Day!

Peacefully,
Joezilla

Surprise, Surprise

What makes a surprise surprising? The reason a surprise is surprising is because it means that something happened which we were not thinking about before it happened. In other words, surprises are surprising because they are unexpected.

This may seem an obvious observation (in the 90s it might have elicited a “Duh!” or even the more aggressive “No-Duh!” response), but it carries with it some significant implications about our daily lives.

How many times a day are we surprised? I mean real, absolute surprises, the kind that throw off your concentration or, in some cases, make you jump. How many times a day do they come? Once? Twice? Maybe, on a particularly action-packed day, five or ten times, tops?

I know what you’re thinking. “Get to the point, you raving lunatic! I only happened upon this blog by chance, and your time is up! Stimulate my mind and/or spirit, or I’m clicking the ‘Back’ button and getting out of here!”

Well, fear not, for here is the crux of the matter. We are surprised when something happens which was not previously in our mind, when something unexpected happens. We further concluded that approximately .1% of daily happenings are surprises. That means that 99.9% of daily happenings are things that we were thinking about prior to their occurrence!

So the point is this: think carefully. Thought is a life-changing power. Depending on how it is used, it will make or break you. Use it wisely, and life will be a joy.

For further reading (and there are few more edifying books than these), please consult As A Man Thinketh by James Allen, and The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. Either book will be enough to begin a monumental period of change and improvement in your life. I guarantee it.

If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. (Edward Rickenbacker)

"Thinking on these things,"
Joezilla

What Was I Thinking?

I've been thinking a lot lately. Perhaps it is disconcerting for you, dear reader (if, in fact, you exist), that there are times when I'm not thinking a lot. No matter; because, if you must know, I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of thinking. It has come to my attention yet again just how important it is to keep careful control over our thoughts.

No, I did not come to such lofty conclusions on my own—I was handily conked over the head with them by a book I recently began reading, entitled As A Man Thinketh (by James Allen). It's one of the oldest self-help books I've ever seen (excepting the Bible, of course), a short and delightful read, voiced in that wonderfully dressed-up and wordy style of a long-forgotten and much classier age—it was written in 1902. There is something in this book's message that resonates with me deeply; each paragraph sends an arrow of inspiration straight to my heart, and empowers me. Here's an example from page 26:

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right; and during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things, and other people, things and other people will alter toward him.

You said it, my friend! Isn't that awesome? I think we all have experiences like this—this deep sort of inspiration can be triggered by the written word, the spoken message, or, perhaps most dramatically, in the vibrant poetry of music, which, being indescribable in words, is among the most mysterious and inexplicable forms of inspiration. I think that when we are blessed enough to find one of these sources of individual inspiration (individual, because different people respond to different sources), we need to preserve them, hold them close, and remind ourselves of them constantly.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Really? Remind yourself of it constantly? That seems like overkill." Well, if that's overkill, then overkill is the secret to success. If someone wishes to be good, why not pursue goodness at all times? In fact, how can one possibly attain goodness if he doesn't constantly work to keep it at the forefront of his mind? We know what human nature is like—if we don't master it and use its great potential for good, then it changes according to environment and circumstance.

As human beings, we are wired to be creatures of habit. We are constantly urged by our nature to settle into routines. It's sort of a biological law of inertia. We have the choice, then, to settle into routines that will slowly destroy us, or routines that lift us up and improve our lives (and, therefore, the lives of those around us). Another favorite source of inspiration, the motivational speaker Matthew Kelly, loves to repeat this challenge: "If you can tell me your habits, I can tell you what kind of person you are." He's so right! It's the habits that make or break us. I'm going to be keeping that in mind, hopefully for a long time. I suggest you do the same.

Inspiredly,
Joezilla