Last week in our Miles Christi formation group we were discussing purity of intention; how it is important to do all that we do for the Lord and not for human respect or praise. In order to do this, we have to make sure that we are paying more attention to the opinion of God than to the opinions of others.
Even in difficult situations - whether it is a somewhat unfriendly family situation or co-workers who are not very pro-religion - we can still win souls for Christ if we focus on serving these people for the love of God. In our group we talked about how Jesus has invited us all to follow Him very closely. He wants us to be His hands, feet and mouth to the world. Our aim should be of "walking the earth sowing the peace and joy that the world cannot give."
This last sentence struck me. I immediately envisioned Johnny Appleseed walking the countryside sowing apple seeds. I then envisioned myself in a plaid shirt, an overall skirt (of course!) and a big straw hat with a big burlap sack slung over my shoulders. As I walked the countryside, I spread peace and joy to all those I met. Interesting vision, isn't it?
It seems like it would be so easy to spread peace and joy as you walk by various people and towns. How much harder it is to maintain that vision of myself spreading peace and joy at all times to the people within the walls of my house - although I suppose if I walked around in an outfit like that, the family might laugh a lot more!
Well, no matter what our outfit is, we are all called to serve others for the love of God. We are all called to spread peace and joy to everyone we meet, even if we are tired or crabby or sick. We are all called to take advantage of the thousands of circumstances that are put before us in our own little corner of the world. We don't even have to travel very far to carry out this call to discipleship.
God Bless!
