My storm

I got used to silence, and a quiet, clean, peaceful household. They've been back 1 day and my clean house is wrecked. Seriously, they are a tornado!

After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus is trying to get away to a quiet spot to mourn the death of his cousin and he's taking the disciples with him, but instead what do they do? They bring the crowd! Great job guys! So does Jesus get angry, upset, frustrated? We do know, he forgoes his retreat in lieu of ministering to others in his moment of need. Being a diocesan priest is a ministry of interruption. Ministry is what you do IN the interruptions, and sometimes we think they don't understand us. Sometimes I wonder if WE understand them. So Jesus continues in the midst of his need to minister to everyone else, taking what little we have to offer and turning it into an overabundance. Only after everyone is satisfied does he send the disciples off.

Jesus doesn't have a sense of humor? This time he sends the disciples off ahead of him. This time they won't be bringing a crowd with them when he's trying to go on retreat! Jesus himself dismisses the crowd before going off to pray. He sees the disciples in the boat battered by the waves in the early evening but he doesn't approach them until early in the morning. What gives? 

When I'm battling something in my life, I'd much rather be spared the torment of enduring it or of disciplining my senses, but if I'm to grow I have to go through the pain of it. When the kids were gone, I'm not going to lie, the first month was tough. I thought I'd go out of my mind. I made it through one day at a time, somehow. In some sense though these past few months were like a retreat. I had silence whenever I needed it. I'd read, pray, exercise and play wii. Listen, Jesus would have played wii if they had back then! 

Now that they are back, it's tough. I got used to certain things, and now I have to take what I've learned on my "retreat" and apply it in our lives as a family, all the while keeping my heart focused on Jesus in the midst of my distractions.

Although I do have to admit when my distractions tell me that they missed me and that I give the best hugs and cuddles ever, it kind of makes my day!