A Choice to Make

Once a month, the 7th through 11th grade religious ed students start off the class period with eucharistic adoration, usually just for 15 minutes.  Every third week of the month, my 8th grade class, without fail, has rattled off a list of complaints before we head over to the church and also afterwards, once we get back to the classroom.  They complain that it’s boring, their knees hurt, they don’t like the smell of incense, they think it’s weird and have to try not to laugh, they don’t want to stare at the wall for so long doing nothing.  They ask what they’re supposed to do and why no one says anything.  These are some of the many words that I’ve heard from them.  Even though it’s been explained to them that Jesus is present and it is a time to be with Him, they still don’t get it, which is likely why they never feel like going.  But when it comes to our faith, it is not just students who can have this mindset.  Just like these students, for many, it is a lack of understanding that keeps them from practicing their faith actively.  And for others, it may be because they just don’t feel like doing anything.  But our faith is not about what we feel.

While many times, our faith makes us feel a certain way or we feel certain emotions, it is not feelings that we should allow to guide us.  It is a choice.  Everyday, we have to get up and choose to live out our faith.  We have to choose God, even when the world around us is choosing the opposite.  We have to choose to speak certain words and serve others however we can.  We have to choose to pray and find ways to grow in our relationship with God.  Making these choices can be hard; they take effort and commitment.  

All we have to do is look at the cross.  When we look at  and think about Jesus dying on the cross for us, we see the ultimate picture of love.  Love is not about feeling a certain way, it is a choice that is made.  And if we ever feel like Jesus is far from us or we cannot feel his presence, we must remember to choose Him anyway.  Because that is love.

With Lent beginning tomorrow, there may be a lot we are thinking about regarding how we can grow.  As we think about the small sacrifices we might make, the extra money or time we may give, and the deeper and extra prayer we will enter into, we might decide that we don’t feel like doing certain things because it’s too hard.  When we are tempted to take the easy way out, may our love for Jesus outweigh our feelings.  Let us choose to be intentional in what we do, even when we don’t feel like it.
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Choose Jesus this Lent, he has chosen you.