Anointed

"You love justice and hate evil. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else." ~ Psalm 45:7

Last night I was overjoyed and deeply moved to be anointed by my husband in a sacramental gesture at the closing of our church's Leadership Series for volunteers! The series has been so rich and formative for my faith journey and seemed to come at the exact right time in my life. God's timing is so divine! Through my experience, I have grown even deeper in my faith, in my connection to my church with such a dynamic community of parishioners, and in answering God's unique call for me to fulfill my role in my church as a devoted disciple of Christ. And it was incredibly special to be able to go through this Leadership Series with a few of my friends and most especially my better half, Matthew! It was such a meaningful way to close the series with a sacramental anointing to each other with chrism oil and the words

"Remember that we are children of God and we are called to serve one another."

It was especially meaningful for Matthew to anoint me because he always brings me closer to God. He is such a Godly man and he is always teaching me about being a true follower of God through his actions, his patience and kindness, and his strength.

One way to define the act of anointing is "dedicating to the service of God". I am so blessed by God and eager to keep growing in my faith, my personal life, and my volunteer leadership involvement from the knowledge and experiences I gained during The Basilica's Leadership Series. Here goes! I'm diving even deeper into how I can live my life in service to God and His children by exploring some new ministries in, as well as outside of, my church!

Restlessness

God has blessed me with an abundance of interests and talents, but I am praying for His help with discernment. I often get distracted by all the options and lose sight of which need to take priority, or which will do the most good, for myself and others.

Yesterday I read a Lent Reflection passage by Henri J.M. Nouwen titled "Those Between Wants Will Be Restless." I think in some ways this simple statement sums up the way I live. He went on to say "Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop. We want this, and that, and then something else. The many options confuse us and create in us an enormous restlessness. When someone says, "Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind," we do not know what to choose... As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy. That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to get beyond these wants and discover our mission in life."

I've recognized this struggle of mine for over a year now, and it's a constant daily struggle. I think I've been on the right track to put my trust in God and listen for Him to answer my life. But I think a few things happened in the past year where I was getting ahead of myself, where I tried to answer every call I thought I heard and overwhelmed myself. Yesterday's passage repeated a lot of what I've been reading in Matthew Kelly's books, and discovering for myself, that is to practice those pivotal inner and outer disciplines and strengthen my own mental and physical health before I can take the next steps fully, which is exactly what I'm doing this month. It's a slow, forward and back process, but I am experiencing small, yet critical, changes in my outlook on my personal time management, approaching chores and errands, and learning how to accomplish one thing at a time and pace myself, to balance work and play and slowly weed out my habit of procrastination. Obviously life continues to happen, I'm in the play and I am still working a few shifts at Caribou Coffee a week, plus auditioning, volunteering and having a social life, but having the extra hours at home during the week has definitely opened the opportunity for me to get better organized and find both physical rest and peace of mind so I can more successfully approach things like exercising and preparing for auditions and accomplishing tasks and errands ahead of time instead of last minute. It is making the world of difference for me and I am grateful every minute of every day because my husband is so patient and supportive of me taking this time for personal growth and reflection. I'm excited for the changes in me and what direction God is taking me in!