Speak up!

I have gotten stuck in the why-I-can't, trapped into just saying "poor me."

That is not the kind of daughter I want!  We have been talking about being proactive, being relentlessly happy.  And we know Who does that for us, with us, in us!

I will begin my journey to learn how to have MORE faith!  I will continue my journey I began at Baptism!

Faith in myself and faith in what God can do was explained to me today in a talk I listened to about a plain brown bush.  The plain bush is the one that God set on fire!  It is the one that stunned Moses because it was burning and did not burn up!  

Now that I reflect on my life, I see that He is always trying to set me back on fire. We are not to live in darkness.  He is the Light of the world!  In Baptism, through the grace of the Church He established to pass on what He began, we are joined to Him and made the light of the world!

Remember the way we start out in darkness at the Easter Vigil Mass?  Then we are given candles, and they are lit up starting from the Easter candle (symbolizing Christ), to the priest, down to each other!

Ephesians 5:8: "For you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord: walk as children of light"

Christ's life within me is the fire, lighting me up, but not consuming who I am.  Yeah, that is stunning!

I can say that in not turning to Christ more often during my low moments, it has led to a turning off of that light, that passion, in me.  In Baptism, our sponsors are told to help us keep the light of Christ burning.

1 John

5And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin"

Set my heart on fire.  I asked for that when I was 18, after I started to really think about Confirmation, setting the world on fire, knowing, loving, trusting, serving God.  He gives us a great deal of a new start at a full life, and I just knew one should not pass that up!

At the American Heritage Girls' Leadership Conference in January 2015, there was that song on the last day that reminded me of my long-ago desire:  I wanted to set the world on fire at Pentecost and beyond with the Holy Spirit like at the First Pentecost!

Set the World on Fire 

by Britt Nicole

I wanna set the world on fire
Until it's burning bright for You!
It's everything that I desire.
Can I be the one You use?
I, I am small, but
You, You are big enough!
I, I am weak, but
You, You are strong enough to

Take my dreams, come and give them wings.
Lord, with You, there's nothing I cannot do,
Nothing I cannot do!"

There is a bit of a change to this theme, still with the focus on a change, a renewed passion:

I don't want to set the world on fire
I just want to start a flame in your heart

   By The Inkspots

I have longed to "Shine" like the Newsboys sang:

Shine
Make 'em wonder what you've got
Make 'em wish that they were not
On the outside looking bored
Shine
Let it shine before all men
Let'em see good works, and then
Let 'em glorify the Lord