How often do we consider loving God to be careful to follow his commandments and showing our love to others? In setting out upon a journey at the beginning of a year, we should feel as though we are proclaiming a year of favor, a year of God blessing us in so many ways. Imagine, if you will, how peace-filled and happy people would be if at the beginning of each year we set before ourselves intentions to work seriously to make our year a year of favor, a year of grace, a year of blessings, a year of taking our faith and our religion seriously.
Our God will bless each of us with abundance if we take our journey and relationship seriously. Part of our following his commandments is to acknowledge that God has called us to love others with the same kind of love that we love our God. That may mean that we have to stand up of others on one occasion or another. And who are those others: so often it turns out to be someone whose life or way of living is difficult to accept. It may be the poor, it may be the illegal immigrant, it may be the woman who has an abortion, it may be the young adult who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, it may be the man who has abandoned his wife and children --- it could be any one of the people the God has created. But we have to make up our minds that we will follow the lead of the Holy Spirit to help these people if they come to us for help. It brings up back to the WWJD question: "What Would Jesus Do?" We have to set before ourselves the intention that we will take our baptismal calling seriously.
Intention is like a power that exists in the world for all to tap into it. It is a reality, a God-given power that enables men and women to accomplish the life God has wanted for that person. Grace-filled moments each day are signs that God want each of us to step out into an extraordinary journey. God did not create this spectacular world simply to stand dormant. Even before a person is born, even before conception, God had plans for that person. That man or woman to be, that child, was already in the mind of God with God's intention that he or she become a unique individual ... but when it is born, it is given free will ... the freedom to become a person not fulfilling God's intention.
So, it is important to consider what God's intention is for each of us ... which we do by living our our days in joyful hope that we can follow where God calls us.
