Tough Love

Many years ago there was a woman who was extremely distraught over her sons behavior. Eventually, she went to visit her priest to ask him if he would talk to her son. The priest agreed and met her son a week later. During the meeting the young man (let's call him Robbie) was the most obnoxious, rude, disrespectful, and arrogant person the priest had ever met.

The priest absolutely could not get through to him at all. Eventually, Robbie got up to leave and right before he got to the door the priest said, "Do you mind if I pray for you?" Robbie turned around, gave a shrug and said, "Yeah, whatever."

The priest then said..."I'm going to pray that God takes you by the throat, lifts you up and crushes you for your sins." Robbie hesitated for a second, mumbled a few words and then left.

About one week later Robbie was in a terrible car accident and was basically placed a full body cast in the hospital. The priest walked into his room, saw the boy laying in bed and grinned widely. The boy did not smile back. Every day or two the priest returned to visit and it took Robbie several months to get through his rehab. The injuries were serious, but they were not physically life altering.

During numerous visits and watching Robbie go through countless rehab sessions, the priest noticed that Robbie's spirit had changed. The boy had evolved into one of the humblest individuals that the priest had ever known. Robbie's near death experience had changed his entire outlook on life and he became close to Jesus.

* * *

I want to go back to a point in the story where the priest said..."I'm going to pray that God takes you by the throat, lifts you up and crushes you for your sins."

After that first meeting the priest did pray for Robbie. He prayed that the Lord humble the boy in order to bring him closer to Jesus.

It's only through trials and tribulations that we find ourselves seeking and moving closer to God. God gives us these burdens to bear because He loves us. Trials, tribulations and hardships are invisible blessings from above and it's in these times that we draw closer to God and really find out how dependent we are upon him.

* * *

The story above is TRUE and I believe there are at least three points that standout:

1) It's okay to pray that God humble someone who has grossly strayed off the path. God will decide the appropriate action to take...we don't need to be specific. But, this should only be done out of love, not out of malicious intent.

2) The cross that we bare in life can be heavy at times, but God will never give us more than we can handle. He does this to remind us that we need Him more than anything else in the world.

3) Sometimes we just need a good kick in the (you know where) as a wake up call to remind us why were are here.


Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

1Peter5:6


God bless you. And this if for His Glory!

Your Favorite Sin

The beginning a new year is always a good time to reflect upon all the blessings that we had over the past year and to look forward to what's to come. Most of us find ourselves making a new year resolution. This typically leads to giving up something for the betterment of our physical, mental or spiritual health.

If you are contemplating the idea of a "resolution", then consider your favorite sin. Everyone has one. It's that one sin that we keep repeating over and over again. It's that one sin that if we were to go to confession or ask for forgiveness on a weekly basis, it would be on our list every single time.

Of course, I'm being facetious when I say "Favorite Sin". It's more like least favorite (being the repeat offender that it is). Mine is selfishness...and I struggle with it daily.

So, I challenge you to work from "the top down" to reduce and eventually eliminate your favorite sin this year. Put it in your cross hairs, make it a priority and by God's grace all the other loose ends in your life will start to fall into place as well.

¹⁵ This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.

¹⁶ But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.

1 Timothy 15-16

Happy New Year.

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!