Reflections of a beloved son

  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.” Psalm 23:4a Wednesday of the First Week of Advent For an audio version, click here . As winter approaches, the days get shorter, and the sky turns dark earlier. Sometimes the darkness and coldness of winter may put us in a sad mood or even make us think about some of the things we have been working so hard to avoid, ignore, and hide from. Sometimes some parts of our past we are ashamed of creep into our minds and it makes us question ourselves, our identity, our present, and our worth. It is at those times when the enemy capitalizes on our vulnerabilities and try to make us turn to him and move away from God. The Enemy will try to feed the lie that because of those past moments of weakness and shame that we do not deserve happiness or joy and that God does not love us because of our past and we should be too shameful to go to God. But that is the exact opposite of what God wants and what we should do....

The Bible has quite a number of strikingly memorable verses (I mean the entire Bible is but there are some that just sticks to your brain), and among them is this one: " No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God " (Lk. 9:62).  Jesus was not playing around - He sounded pretty serious.  This reminds me of another verse from the first book of Kings where the aging and dying David tells his son Solomon, "Be strong and be a man!" (1 Kg. 2:2).  To be a Christian, a follower of Christ, and a beloved child of God means to be present, look forward and not dwell on the past.   Christians are people of the here and now.  When Jesus invited the people to follow Him, they made excuses and pleaded to let them take care of some business first and then they will follow.  But Jesus basically said, "No, it's now or never." Now, don't get confused.  Jesus was not telling the people to abandon their work, fami...