First of all, this isn’t what I thought this next post would be on. I was going to do a beautiful and detailed look at some of the best examples of God’s love shown throughout the Bible – and I”ll still do that, just next time.  This post though, is one to remind us that love isn’t all flowers and hearts and bliss. Sometimes love is tough.

God has a path for each of us to walk, right? We can choose to follow it or we can choose to take the bunny trails and try to make our own path. If we wander too far away, or wander at all, God starts calling to us, reminding us to come home. The signs can be small, hard to notice, hard to interpret. Or maybe one hits you like losing your voice the day of a performance, and on that same day getting invited to give two separate talks.

That’s what happened to me last Thursday. I had been training and practicing with my two theater class for 10 weeks, we had one night to show off what we learned, and I got sick. (That’s also the reason this post is delayed.)

I think God was making something pretty clear – because I got invited to give two talks that same day to different schools. Which is huge.

It wasn’t what I wanted necessarily. I wanted to perform with my classmates, I wanted my teacher to see what I could do, I wanted to show off, I didn’t want to listen to the little voice in my head telling me that maybe my time doing fun theater is coming to an end. Tough love. Sometimes it’s what we need.

Sometimes we need a reminder that our ideas may not be the ones of God. And we need to step back and reflect on what we’re doing, decide if it’s the same as what God wants us to be doing.

Now is the perfect time for that. Because today is Ash Wednesday.

Lent started today. A season dedicated to penance, to changing our hearts, preparing for the celebration of Easter. Lent is about discovering ways to grow closer to God and show our love for Him, maybe by sacrifice, or by going to adoration, or praying more, or just deciding to dedicate time to discovering who God wants us to be. There are tons of ways to keep Lent the sacred season it is. And it’ll be different for each of us.

My lenten acts will be to dedicate a lot more time to working on Heroic Catholic writing, (study guides, books, posts, etc.) and making myself get out and get to know people at the Catholic Student Center at my college. The latter will be much harder for me than the former, but Lent isn’t about keeping everything easy.

Lent isn’t about piling on as many sacrifices as you can think of either. Any sacrifice you decide to make should direct you to becoming closer to God. If giving up sweets helps you find a way to focus on God and Religion, awesome. IF giving up Facebook means you spend that time in prayer or reading or study of the Faith – fantastic. Maybe you don’t give anything up, that’s cool too.

This Lent I’m trying something new for me. A little sacrifice each day, and adding a little something to enrich my faith life each day. (Like no chocolate one day, and add a decade of the Rosary before I sleep that same day)

This Lent I’m trying to say less “I want” and more of “Your will be done” in my life, words, and deeds. I want to love Him better. To keep discovering what He has planned and follow those plans, letting His love for me be my guide.

Love isn’t always easy. Sometimes love means missing something you wanted to do, so that another door can be opened. Who knows where Love will lead us if we stay open to it? I want to find out.

Keep one another in your prayers this Lenten season, I’ll be praying for y’all too.

~

Catherine

P.S. I challenge you to lay in bed before you sleep and just ask God to speak in your heart. Ask Him what you are called to be and do – then just listen. Place yourself in His presence and know that you are loved greatly by Him and He wants to lead you ever closer to His heart.