So there you have it, my story isn’t epic like Samson’s or miraculous like Elijah’s, I don’t think I’m going to be carried off on a fiery chariot either, and I’m ok with that! My story can be described with a few pretty words – faith, trust, humor – and above all else love. So, all in all, my advice for you, beautiful daughter of the great I AM is this: Love Him. Love Jesus fiercely with everything you’ve got. Empty yourself of all the things holding you back.
Pay no mind to those people who might look at you funny when you tell them your ideal Friday night is spent at the adoration chapel, not the bar. Don’t worry when people question your motives about why you suddenly find it necessary to wear a dress and a veil to Mass (I mean not that I know anything about that). Stay strong in those moments you find yourself in situations where people try to talk you out of your love for God. Be a light in a dark world. Wear joy like you found it in the clearance section and you bought the dang whole rack.
Don’t be afraid to abandon your desires to those of the Lord’s. Give Him your time, your undivided attention. For so many years I thought I would be happy if… I had so many ifs in my life. Nothing in this world can bring you happiness if your desires aren’t rooted in the Divine. You may think you are happy, but if you get down to you’re just distracted. Find joy in the ordinary and beauty in a life you share with God and suddenly you may start to find you don’t need distractions any more. You don’t need the lies of Satan because you have the truth of the Almighty.
Make sacrifices for Him like you would for anyone else you love. The word sacrifice has such a negative connotation to it in our instant gratification society. Sacrifices aren’t all that bad though. When you willingly give something up out of love for someone, and in turn love for God, the blessings and graces that God will flood you with so outweigh anything you might think you are missing out on. As crazy as it might sound, in some cases, what we need to sacrifice is our guilt, the longer we carry that burden the tighter we hold on to it because we don’t know any other way.
Let that guilt go! Take your broken heart to confession and receive the true healing mercy of the love of Christ. A repentant heart allows you to trade in that guilt for grace. There is nothing you have done that God’s mercy can’t free you from. Nothing. We have to offer everything up to God, the good and especially the bad. I was once told by a priest in confession that our sins aren’t scandalous to God. He already knows what you’ve done, but you never lose your identity has His beloved daughter. Never ever. We aren’t going to start on fire walking into the church as a punishment, but our souls can be set on fire with The Spirit from the freedom that comes with forgiveness and healing.
Dating Jesus can open up your heart and life to a world of possibilities you never would have thought could exist for you. As with any relationship, there will probably be some tears, for me there have been more than just “some”. There have been times where it has been a full on ugly cry sob fest… in public… with lots of people around. As crazy as it sounds, though, I’ve never felt more beautiful than in those moments. Those snot-filled sob sessions have been moments of healing for me. Moments where I allowed myself to be so open to Jesus that I don’t think we have human words to describe what can happen.
To sum up what I’ve found out over the course of my own spiritual dating life in one sentence is this: the more human I make my relationship with Jesus, the more divine it becomes.
I’m praying for you sisters, I’m praying that you come to understand you are worth loving. Go ahead and try something crazy in your life, allow yourself to be loved. Whether you are married, single, or somewhere in between – you have always been, and always will be, spiritually spoken for.
Spiritually Spoken For 