Fighting for what is right.

Not to start off sounding like a diary entry of Doogie Howser M.D, but recently I learned a very valuable lesson. I learned that people so easily become caught up in their own intentions and forget the cause in which they were originally fighting for.

Power struggles — By human nature, I am what many would be quick to tout as a control freak. I like being in control of how everything around me is running. I like to have a good grasp on my emotions, and govern them very carefully to particular people, determined by how important they are to me. However, since I have found faith, I have thrown all caution to the wind and have allowed God the ability to just take my heart and use it as He will — And we all know, He will.

It was said in a simple prayer, “I am yours, God, use me.”  And He has.

Around me, I constantly see people not wanting to let go and let God, as the saying goes — they prefer to talk relentlessly about their visions, their concerns, their plans, their will — their will. They are so busy talking that they haven’t stopped for a simple moment to hear God tell them His will. The find complacency while dealing with extremely delicate issues that should be approached with compassion and a certain fire that only God can fill them with.  The hunger to do what is right, to be passionate about their ministry has left them, satiated only by a need to show face, perhaps not consciously, and to appear Holy.

In the book of James, it says “Faith without works is dead” and while I strongly agree with this — there is the other side of the spectrum. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for practicing righteous acts and false piety, what was the point in carrying on with the routines if they didn’t live a righteous life outside of The Church?

It is so important for the good of our spirits, for the souls of others — that we never lose sight of what we are fighting for. There is no point in retreating or sugar-coating your convictions in terms of your faith and / or beliefs just because you don’t want to appear “too extreme” in the eyes of secularists. (This is not to say that you should go out blazing trails and fighting with vicious words and forked tongues.) There is no point in trying to take a stance on an issue if you have no real compassion or care about it.  There is no point in trying to preach to others about something that you are not correctly applying to your own life — or trying to teach others when you aren’t wholly educated yourself. In fact, it’s also quite dangerous the responsibility for slipping souls would lay heavy upon your shoulders.

My point is, is that if people stopped struggling for power – stopped trying to look good, trump themselves up to get ticks beside their name from other people around them — building their churches upon sand, then they might be able to get back to basics and hear the word of God and rectify their ways. When you ask God to use you, when you open your heart to Him, you will be filled with the graces necessary to teach from the heart, to reveal Him to others, to be a beacon of faith that steadily overflows in to the hearts of others — and become more righteous and stronger within your own faith.

I am not perfect. I have been in states of mortal sin in my life — but I am careful to always rectify that situation as immediately as when it happens (by going to confession). When in a state of mortal sin, one is not able to properly commune with God and The Church, thus leaving (you) in a position unable to, without hypocrisy, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ by example and action.

Any other control freaks out there? … Praise God for the fact that you were able to recognise it. But just let go, and let God so that you can properly grow in faith, with fire in your heart to fight for what is right.