Conversion

Have you ever been annoyed by something or someone so much that it begins to take up a great deal of space in your thoughts of the day? Maybe it is something that someone does or doesn’t do that makes you feel frustrated or even angry. If we let it, it can begin to fester in our mind just like a wound that becomes infected. If we fail to do something positive about it the infection can become very serious.

Many years ago my career path involved a great deal of national travel. I could be gone from home 3, 5, 7 or even 10 days at a time. When I came home I could be turning around in another day or week and be gone again. Often I came home to a wife who was overloaded and ready for a break. She was caring for three young very busy children who could be a handful not to mention all the other responsibilities she was now picking up due to my absence. I came home exhausted with all the travel as well as trying to catch up with things at work and home that had been stacking up. Often it wasn’t pretty.

While on the road I longed to be home with my family but before long I started to feel anxious about going home to who knows what. When we married we had an agreement that we would never speak the “D” word into our marriage. Although I was committed to that agreement, sadly at that time it didn’t seem out of the question but for the children.

One Sunday I was sitting in church at Mass totally frustrated. Our pastor gave a homily that turned my direction. He talked about the importance of loving and seeing the good in others. He caused me to start thinking about what it was I saw good in my wife who I was so upset with. Ashamedly I tell you that I could come up with little to nothing that I saw good in her. I was so blinded by my perceived pain. The first thing I came up with was that she had clean clothes ready for me every week and before every trip. Wow! That was weak. Over the next few days and as I hit the road again I worked on expanding my list of goodness in her. Over the next few weeks I began to see more and to slowly begin to fall in love with her again.

I began to realize how the statement, “Love is a decision” had some merit. Love is certainly much more than that but it is true that we control what we see and what we do. The real decision is about caring more for the other person than for ourselves. That truly is what real love is all about. It is focusing on the good of others and reinforcing that vision with the eyes of our heart. Is there sacrifice? Yes there is, but focusing on our self-sacrifice is looking within rather than looking out for the love of the other.

I wear progressive glasses and it is interesting how in just slightly tilting my head I can see things more clearly with just a little adjustment. The things I am looking at didn’t change. It was my perspective that changed. So it is really on me to see things and people differently. Just like wearing glasses helps me physically see things better so does bringing God into the picture help me see things better spiritually. I need the help and who better to help me than the Lord our God. He brings a powerful sense of love into our perspective. After all, God is love.

Our culture would have us consider ourselves first and get all dramatic about the things and the people that annoy us. Satan wants to bring chaos and confusion into our situations and lives. It is one of his ways of destroying us. He wants to blind us with the issues rather than refocus on the good. Where God calls us to step back, take time to reflect, and begin to see things in a better light by looking with love for the good.

When we are overcome by our own misery and pain we are insensitive to the pain of others especially if our perspective is that they cause our pain. Love says look at their pain and consider how you can make things better with the help of God. When we step back and reflect on What Jesus Would Do, a peace can come over us that sets us in the right direction.

Tilting our heart a bit can bring us into a better focus, thanks be to God. Bringing God more deeply into our lives makes the journey less annoying and more fulfilling.

Let us keep tilting our hearts into right-focus and let us Shine Like the Son. God bless you.

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