“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the cat.
“We’re all mad here.”
The Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
(a toppled statue of St Francis / Julie Cook / 2020)
No, my little St. Francis statue is not the victim of our current hate-fueled madness but
rather it was the victim of a severe thunderstorm.
He toppled over onto the sidewalk and literally lost his head.
Yet, to be honest, seeing poor ol St. Francis having lost his head,
stung my senses a bit.
And so if an old worn garden statue I’ve had for years can prick my emotions, imagine how
I feel watching American monument after monument being defaced or destroyed?
Imagine my dismay over our suddenly removing the names of those more famous among us,
those who are now long gone, being removed from buildings or airports all because their only crime
was having lived generations ago.
What of those now screaming that all white European images of Christ be removed,
or better yet, destroyed?
What of those in the LGBTQ communities exclaiming they don’t wish to co-exist with Christians
but would rather prefer seeing Christianity as nonexistent.
But more about that nonsense later…
Have you ever found yourself pondering the notion of your existence?
As in a ‘why am I here’ sort of pondering?
I know that there have been those amongst us who have felt a keen sense
of purpose for their lives early on…a sense of destiny.
It is a sense of knowing, even as a child, that they were destined for something
so much bigger and so much greater than simply being themselves.
Karol Wojtyla, later the first Polish Pope and Saint, John Paul II felt such.
George Patton, later 4-star general, also felt such.
Winston Churchill, later the UK Prime Minister during WWII, again, felt the same.
As a young boy, Churchill is noted for telling a young schoolmate that he knew
that greatness was in his future.
This coming from a precocious young boy who struggled in his schooling.
A boy who was shipped off to boarding school and was often an embarrassment to his
famously prestigious father.
Greatness was not the initial thought that came to the mind of those who knew
the boy before there was to be the man.
There have been countless others who have also felt the very same sense of purpose.
A feeling that their life was a calling.
A calling to something greater than.
Such callings are often referred to as vocations.
With vocations being vastly different from mere jobs.
A vocation requires a deep sense of dedication—up to and not limited
to one’s very existence.
Those who become members of religious orders and even those who are lead to become teachers,
doctors, policemen, firefighters, nurses…they are but a few of those who we consider as
being called to vocations rather than 9 to 5 jobs.
Those who seek vocations rather than the average job have often felt such calls
early on in life.
An invisible pulling to something so much more than…
If you were ever a kid who attended any sort of Sunday School,
chances are you heard stories and tales about ‘the saints’ —
those brave men and women who dedicated their entire beings to serving God
and proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Those who were willing to face the dire consequences of doing so.
Gruesome tortures with eventual death being the inevitable.
Some of these men and women had been average folks but many had been roughnecks,
criminals and most often the worst amongst us…
yet God had tapped them early on for something so much greater.
And once the scales had fallen from their eyes and their hearts broken,
their true mission began.
And so, we know…
there is indeed a calling.
And there will be no denying this calling.
Some of us already know this very keenly.
Others of us come to this knowledge reluctantly…but come we do.
And when we do so, we do so resolutely.
So tell me, have you heard it?
Have you heard or felt the calling?
I have.
And so now I know…
This thought will be continued…tomorrow.
Call to me and I will answer you,
and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Jeremiah 33:3
Whoever is of God hears the words of God.
The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
John 8:47
cookiecrumbstoliveby 