Happy Customer

It's Sunday morning, and ideally I would be sleeping right now, but clearly that's not going to happen, so I'm writing the blog I've was thinking about all day Saturday. Here goes nothing...

I really like my school cafeteria food; it's the bomb. Most of the kids at my school hate it, but I look forward to lunch everyday because I get to eat awesome food which is lawfully required to be nutritious. What a deal! 

Lately I've been noticing that when I got to pay for my food, I thank the lady working the cash register. I guess that's not too strange, but for a while everytime I thanked her, in the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Why am I thanking her? I'm the one paying for this food, she should be thanking me! I'm the customer, she is the producer, that's just how it works." 

It wasn't until yesterday that I finally figured it out... In a similar situation, I went into the confessional yesterday with sins to lay down, and also the shame and embarrassment which we have all felt when we find ourselves in desperate need of God's healing mercy again. Interestingly enough, at the end of my confession, after painfully opening myself up to God, through the priest, and allowing God to flood in and fix the damage done by sin and selfishness, I did not sit there, waiting for God to thank me for coming back; no, instead I sat there, thanked the priest, and then silently let praise and thanks flow off of my heart. 

When we go to confession, we are not customers, purchasing the release of our sins, the cost being our shame and humiliation. Actually, it's not a purchase, it's more of a gift. Someone has already paid for it. Jesus traded His life for my healing, my redemption, my eternity. All that's left to do is redeem the graces won for us on the cross. 

I like analogies, especially when they have to do with food, because I don't have to do a whole lot of explaining. I can plant the seed of a thought, and then you can let it grow in your own heart, and you can ponder what it means in your own life, and allow that idea to change who you are, even if it's just for a day. That said, I feel like I've written almost everything the Spirit wants me to write, and I'm going to pray that when you read this, you recieve something, anything, that shows God's immeasurable Love for you, because it real, and it's for sinners, so it's made just for me and you. ;)

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus."

2 Timothy 2:3

God Bless,

Alex