Know When to Leave : Part 2

Know When to Leave : Part 2

   The other day I wrote the blog about knowing when to leave and stand up for the faith, and since then I have felt the need to add more to it. There is more to “Leaving” then when the situation is bad or things are not right. Sometimes it is even when all is good and all is ok, that we need to pack up, stand up and walk out the door that is opened. 

    If all is ok why would you need to leave you may ask? Well, sometimes it has to be done to expand your experiences, test and strengthen your faith, or for a greater good. We all become stagnate at times and with that comes the need to be stirred up. Shake things up sometimes. I know for myself sometimes I just need to get in my car and head out to find different scenery. With that change of scenery I find a new sense of clarity and understanding. It can be as simple as changing the time you go to mass, attending mass at a different church or even attending a parish mission. The idea is to just keep that fresh and open sight into what God is wanting you to see and experience. Our minds start to wander and with that so does our attention to what is going on. This way a simple change may just keep our minds more focused on the new environment, new people, new message we are receiving. 

   Now for the real reason why I felt there needed to be a part two. This is not going to be easy to say to some people and including myself in this. Sometimes WE need to leave a perfect situation where everything seems to be great, everything is working out, everything has fallen into place, and everything is just as we want it to be. Yet, we are no longer to be there. It is time to leave and trust that the new door that is opening is where we are now to head. This is the hard part. I think it is actually harder to leave a good situation then a bad one. It is clear when things are not right. Not saying it is easy to leave a bad situation. This is where having faith and trust in God is put to the test for ourselves. I know for myself it is hard to leave when things are good, even pointless to leave. You know “ Don’t leave a good thing”. Yet, going through discernment has taught me that sometimes “There is a Greater Good” that we are being asked to do or experience. 

  What is “Greater Good”? I wish I could give an answer that makes it clear to each of us and would really love to have it be very clear for myself to be honest. That “Greater Good” is different for each of us and maybe you are already experiencing or living that “Greater Good”. What it is to me is that even though you are doing good or part of something good, does not mean that is what you are ultimately to be doing. That there is something more for you that God created you to do. God created us with special gifts and talents that is unique to each person. There is a reason or better yet, a purpose that we were given those special talents and gifts. It does not mean what we were doing is not good but we are not at that full experience we are being called to do. Just think for a moment of your greatest joy or a great moment in your life..... now think what if there was something even greater then that you are being called to do or be? It is something that I think we all need to pray and think on. 

    This “Greater Good” can come in different forms from jobs, relationships, or ministries that we are involved in. It is hard to leave anyone of those and start new somewhere else or add more to our lives. I look back at all my different experiences and see the hand of God in many of them and sometimes I left before it was time or stayed longer then I should have or even did not return as I should have. Each of those times altered a part of me that God saw that needed to be. I am now longing and searching for my “Greater Good” that God has chosen for me. The days of finding my own greatness is done and over with. We have to turn over our will to be able to see that “Greater Good” in our lives. Maybe you will find that you are already there and then can sit back with a sigh and Thank God for it. Others will need some time to pray and think. Then the rest is ready to pack up and ready to start the next part of life. 

    I hope and pray that each and everyone of us finds that “Greater Good” in our lives or recognize we have that “Great Good” already. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and be ready and willing for the Greater Good to come into your life. 

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 244

Reading 1

IS 65:17-21

Thus says the LORD:

Lo, I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth;

The things of the past shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness

in what I create;

For I create Jerusalem to be a joy

and its people to be a delight;

I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and exult in my people.

No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,

or the sound of crying;

No longer shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;

He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,

and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.

They shall live in the houses they build,

and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 30:2 AND 4, 5-6, 11-12A AND 13B

R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear

and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.

O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;

you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.

R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,

and give thanks to his holy name.

For his anger lasts but a moment;

a lifetime, his good will.

At nightfall, weeping enters in,

but with the dawn, rejoicing.

R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;

O LORD, be my helper.”

You changed my mourning into dancing;

O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.

R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Gospel

JN 4:43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.

For Jesus himself testified

that a prophet has no honor in his native place.

When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,

since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;

for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,

where he had made the water wine.

Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.

When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,

he went to him and asked him to come down

and heal his son, who was near death.

Jesus said to him,

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

The royal official said to him,

“Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

While the man was on his way back,

his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.

He asked them when he began to recover.

They told him,

“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”

The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,

“Your son will live,”

and he and his whole household came to believe.

Now this was the second sign Jesus did

when he came to Galilee from Judea.