"A Man Shows His Love ..."

 "A man shows his love for a cause by the amount of sacrifice he will make for it; and as consistency, honor and truth are the most precious elements in character, who could sacrifice more than he!" ~ Horace Mann

 A few weeks ago I was on a website that lead me to a site called "Makes Me Think" where people post a paragraph about something that has either witnessed or has happened to them. It's a really interesting site and really makes people think about different things.

 While on my flight back home today, I was reading the above quote in a letter Horace Mann wrote concerning slavery in California, and it got it me thinking about my life, and what I would like to see more and more people think about what was written.

 I began to think about a friend of mine that I met for the first time while I was on my trip. Lorielle is an actress and artist that I found to be a wonderful person to talk and spend time with. She also does an internet talk show where she spends time not only talking about her adventures as a struggling actress, but also talks about having a life full of positivity. One of the things that I have gotten to know about her over time is that it seems as though she has given up a lot of stuff and opportunities to try and have some success in a field where so many people have tried but didn't succeed, but I believe that she will. One of the things that she does is gets involved with different charities that she believes in. 

 I also think about Jesus. OK, we all know that Jesus is the Son of God, but Jesus could of taken the easy way and only done things that was popular at the time, and he still would of gotten his word out, but I don't think that his word would of spread out to others. But Jesus didn't take that route, and sacrificed his life for us because he loves us.

 But sit back and think about your life, and what you have sacrificed because of something that you have loved so much. What have you sacrificed because you knew and know you are doing the right thing for not only yourself, but because you really want to make this a better place for all? Would you continue to do your job if it didn't pay anything? How much time and energy are you really willing to put into something, or do you do something not thinking about the time and energy but because you truly love it?

 What does the above quote mean to you? 

Serving More Than 1 God

 I got to thinking about this after seeing a tweet by Father Alberto Cutie and some things that have gone on over the last few months. The more that I think about it, the more that I realize that all of us in some way try and serve more than one God. Now I am sure that some people will say that we really aren't serving more than one God in the things that we do, but in a way we do.

 Being that I am the person that provides the music for my congregation, at times it gets strange in that I am really not concentrating or spending any time really putting my full heart into honoring and giving Thanks to the Holy Trinity. But I do try and spend time giving thanks to the Holy Trinity, but it is not always at the congregation that I am a member of. Now I do try and get to the church when I can and remember, but I am often doing and thinking about other things, and with some of those things it means that I am serving another God and not the God of my faith and beliefs.

 But we all end up serving more than one God in many ways. We have become a society where we have cell phones, ipads, laptops and other things with us at all times. I will be in a congregation and see people with their bluetooth earpieces for there phone in their ear, or their cell phone will not be turned off and will suddenly go off, and sudden;y they will be getting up and answer it. It is like that cell phone is their real God. Of the several hundred times I have seen someone answer their phone once as it really been an emergency that I am aware of. There was a line on a movie a few years ago where a person's cell went off and the preacher said, "Unless that is God calling you, you can simply send them to voice-mail, turn off your phone and be here celebrate with others who are here to hear the word of the Lord."

 But we serve other Gods in other ways. We schedule ourselves in a way that is really unhealthy. We end up scheduling and getting involved in things that fall right behind each other, which means that we truly can't give 100% to each other. Oh we try to convince ourselves that we can handle it, but the truth is that we are trying to serve two God. If you are having to rush from one place to another, then you can't give 100% to one of them. Try all you might, you can't.

 I could go on and on about serving two Gods, but I think that we each should spend some time thinking about how we each are trying to serve more than one God in our life?

 Most importantly try and serve the one true God in your life.