More Jesus

"More Jesus.”

That was the intention on my heart today, during the hour Pope Francis dedicated to worldwide Eucharistic Adoration.

 

 

So much has been happening in our lives lately. Who can't relate to some or all of this?

Loss. People we knew. People very close to those we love so much. Knowing families in our community are hurting. How do you find words to pour comfort into broken hearts? How do you walk with someone who is hurting?

More Jesus.

A diagnosis for someone else. Someone you love so dearly. Listening to words you never want to hear – giving thanks that in this case, those words also contain much hope. How do you hold onto the hope and not the fear?

More Jesus.

How do you share the fullness in your heart at such moments? Not because you are afraid, but because these are things we should be saying anyway. Life is precious, and not a guarantee, and the people we love need to know we love them.

More Jesus.

Change. It's on the horizon, and there's good in it, but sadness too. Change that can be exciting, and make you want to work hard and make good things happen. But with change also comes uncertainty. Will everything work out? Will the story carry on the way we've written it in our minds? Nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. How do we trust when so much is at stake?

More Jesus.

We have children. And with all of the beauty they bring to our lives, also comes disruptions. And constant neediness from one direction or another. And we want to respond in peace and joy, but sometimes find ourselves lashing out in frustration instead. A quiet, monastic life is not our calling; how do we multiply the few moments of peace we struggle to carve out for ourselves so we can respond with a calm heart even when there is chaos around us? How do we share a joyful heart when doing so means saying “no” – again – to our personal desires?

More Jesus.

 

 

He is the Answer. He can multiply the minutes. He can heal the hurts. He can provide the words, or at least help the person listening hear them in the right way. He can make even the unexpected work for our good. He foresees all, and can pour grace into everything we overlook -- and even those things we remember, but still don't manage to look at the right way.

He wants to walk with us in our finances. In our relationships. In our parenting. In our marriage. In our health. In everything that comes our way each day. He wants us to bring it all to Him. And then He wants to transform all of it – our very lives – into something more beautiful than we can imagine.

Our hearts cannot contain all His goodness, but why not try to let His Light shine on so many of the hurts, and fears, and struggles we keep there?

The more we fill up on His Light inside our hearts, the more it can shine to the outside – where it is so much in need!

Sitting with our Lord in Adoration is such a beautiful way to begin doing just that.

Pope Francis asked the faithful to pray today, for things related to unity, wholeness, freedom, healing, hope, mercy, joy, peace, faith, and love.

I long for these things, and I fail in these areas so often. I get hurt and fall, and then hurt those around me, those I love the most.

I need more Jesus.

We all do.

I thank Pope Francis for reminding us He is there. He waits for us. He longs to pour out Himself, to fill our hearts until they are overflowing upon our family, our community, our world.

I pray we may long for Him as well. Long for, seek, and find more Jesus.