Fa La La

It's almost Christmas! False.

It's almost Advent. It's almost time to begin preparing for the celebration of the birth of our Lord! I've been getting into the spirit of Christmas lately by listening to the Pandora Christmas station, and desperately avoiding every time Justin Bieber's Christmas album comes on. 

However, I cant run forever, and finally , this afternoon I ran out of skips. 

Consequently, I landed on the Beib's holiday hit, "Fa La La". 

The song highlights everything that Christmas is NOT all about.

So here's my list of how not to celebrate this Christmas, courtesy of JB.

1. Christmas is about getting.

Evidence: "One through ten on your list you can get it, get it, get it, get it now"

Christmas isn't about getting! It's about giving! So give it, give it, give it all! How?

Give charity! Organize a soup kitchen trip with your friends or adopt an underprivileged child to help feed and give Christmas gifts to!

Give hope! Spread the good news! Open yourself up to sharing the true meaning of Christmas. (*Cough cough, it's Jesus)

Give love! Make a deal with yourself to tell the people you love why you love them, one person each day! Or three or four!

2. Happy Christmas to Me!

Evidence: "Baby you deserve everything you want, It's your night, ohhh"

News flash! Unless you were born on December 25, this ain't yo birthday! And honestly who's to say we deserve anything, when the greatest gift of all has already been given to us! Even if Christmas is your birthday, (happy birthday) we have to recognize that our Christmas gift is Christmas itself! (*cough cough, Jesus)

3. Wait, what the...?

Evidence: "I'll deck your heart with bells of holly. Fa la la, etc. 

Baby cuz you're the reason to be jolly. Fa la la, etc."

I'm not going to discuss the strange implications if the first lines of the evidence, this blog would get awkward real fast. 

Look... Baby... Whoever you are... I'm sure you're a nice gal, but you are not the reason to be jolly. (*cough cough, Jesus)

Joy, happiness, jolliness, you name it, it comes from knowing one person and knowing what He came here for.

*cough cough, Jesus

It comes from believing that Jesus was born to die and rise again, out of His immeasurable and uncontainable love for us, and that our lives have purpose and meaning because of His birth.

It comes from striving to imitate the same faith that Mary had knowing she would bear the King and Lord of all in her womb, certain that He alone would save us. 

It comes from understanding, like Joesph, that God's great plan is beyond our understanding and comprehension, and His love is more powerful than we will ever be able to grasp as mere humans, but that we can still try, even in our weakness and doubt, to live devoted to serving Jesus humbly and faithfully. 

It comes from recognizing that celebrating Christmas means celebrating the day God stepped onto this Earth in human flesh, as weak as an infant, then went on to heal sinners and lepers, create His church, and win for us life eternal. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and stay faithful my friends! 

God Bless,

Alex

Invincible

I'm a sinner, and I am broken. Sometimes that is the hardest thing to do. Admit that right there. I know for me, a mix of pride, shame, and insecurity often prevent me from doing just that. And before I confuse you too much more, lemme explain.

I have grown up in the perfect life. I have an older brother, two loving parents, a dog, and straight a's. I have had multiple people tell me my life is like a movie. I'm not sure what happened, but freshman year my life didn't seem good enough anymore. I was constantly trying to impress everyone I met. Maybe it came from the fact that I have always considered myself overlooked, with nothing to make me special, or beautiful, or anything but 100% ordinary. But since freshman, I have tried to make myself stand out, only to be one uped every time. I love my friends, don't get me wrong, but all of them seem to be so much smarter, or prettier, or well liked. I constantly compared myself to them. By the time my junior year hit, I had put so much pressure on myself, I started losing control of it. Normally bubbly and happy, I began to fear school and seeing my friends. I, without realizing it, distanced myself from my friends. I was always stressing about one thing or another and it began to effect every aspect of my life. Around February, I began to realize nobody wanted to be my friend anymore. Have you ever tried high school without friends? I don't suggest it. I cried every night begging for someone to reach out. I didn't understand what I had done to lose all my friends. They talked to me at school? I became a master of "faking it" and making it seem I had it all together when I was falling apart. I honestly wouldn't have made it through without my boyfriend, who confronted my friends behind my back. Of course, my true friends had no intention of hurting me and felt horrible once they knew the pain I was going through. Because of this, I  began to feel so insecure about my personality, I hid it, balled it up inside of me and through it to the side. Before long, I began to feel a pit in my stomach, especially around new or intimidating people. The pit didn't go away, though. It stayed there no matter how sick it made me or how much weight it made me lose. I had this pit in my stomach for 5 months straight, only getting worse with each time I woke up.

Now, throughout this trial in my life, I refused help. I mean, my boyfriend had to go behind my back to get me help!!! I didn't want to inconvenience anyone and I thought I was strong enough to pull myself out of it. Worst part is, I neglected God. My hard-headed self thought I was strong enough to face my human life with out God, while part of me felt too embarrassed to ask God for help when my life was so great. My anxiety continued until about halfway through of my first week as summer camp at The Pines Catholic Camp. My friends from camp will never truly understand how much they mean to me. They saved me from a dark place and even though I don't keep up with them as much as I used too, when I think about them and their beautiful, genuine souls and how they encourage me to be myself and go to God for help, I am at peace for I know the Lord had given me more than I deserve. I woke up on that Tuesday morning, holding back tears because for the first time in forever, I was happy. I was relaxed and I was myself.

Crazy how I spent all that time searching, and the answer was literally right beside me, begging me to ask Him for help. I cant explain the joy that overflowed my life, and how nice it felt to smile again. I didn't want to admit I was broken, but once I did, I was fixed. Beautiful, right?

Now  a few months later, I don't even recognize the girl I was six months ago. I have let myself enjoy this year and I have never been more happy. Though I still have many challenges, I pray. I beg the Lord for help. I cry "I am broken and I am a sinner" and with patience, I know he will fill my breaks with love and peace and he will heal my pain in time.

If you ever struggle, ask for help. The Lord made us to be vulnerable to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are made vulnerable so the Lord can make us invincible.

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 9:38-39

Much Love and God Bless,

MC Halphen

(thanks for reading all the way though, ive never blogged before and idk if I did this right but you rock because you stuck with it!)

Thoughts on Love

Taken directly from Cathryn's journal (you're all in for a treat):

"Humans need to be loved.
We can exist physically without it, but to be able to continue our existence in a life that would otherwise be meaningless, we need to know that we are something precious to someone else, whether they be our parents, spouse, friend, cat, etc. We feel the need for someone else to actualize our value as a human being.
For those of us who know we are loved, and more importantly, that we are loved by God, this may seem obvious, or taken for granted. A baby feels its mother's love when she hold him in her arms. (Now the baby may be so comfy that he happens to fall asleep. Just as Christians, when they feel they are in the Father's loving embrace, may drift off because they are so content. Then we wonder why we do not emotionally feel the Father's love for us - it is because we are sleeping. You cannot feel another's love in reality when you are dreaming.) But say the babe is awoken by a crying child, who feels forsaken and forgotten because the parent stepped out of the room for a minute. If we give this babe the cognitive abilities of an adult (humor me) it would feel sorry for the abandoned child, and realize yet again how amazing it is to be in its mother's safe embrace. Were the babe a good Christian, it would see there is room enough in its mother's arms to accept this lonely child, and may try in some way to help the poor creature come to its mother, for she would surely accept another, and show it what true love and compassion are.

I'm sure there are many more scenarios that would explain the same situation, but my point is, to make it clear: we should love those around us, and make the best effort to show them compassion, in order to bring them to the one who is perfect and will fulfill all their needs. Even if this means looking past the tears and the red face with a gaping mouth to see the anguish they are in. (The expression just mentioned obviously shows pain, yet there can be different ways of expressing the anguish of a soul - this is what I mean.)

Love at all costs."

I'm sorry if this seems like an undeveloped thought or a really rough draft, because it is. I wrote this one night after watching a video of Miley Cyrus break down in tears while singing "Wrecking Ball" and I just felt awful, for her and for the fact that I judged her harshly without knowing what's going on in her life right now. It made me realize that as Christians, we should have compassion for everyone, no matter what they're doing or how they look.

Dependency

I'm the type of person who loves to keep a prayer journal. Yet today was the first time I set aside the time to authentically talk to God through my journal in 6 days. 6 days! I sat there and realized the impact it had had on my week by not setting aside some of my time to have that much needed one-on-one conversation with God. A year ago or so, this might realization may not have been so shocking to me, but in the past year, as I've challenged myself further in my faith, I'm realizing more and more my dependency on God. Not setting aside time to talk to Him directly (besides mass & Bible study), affected me so much, I felt like I hadn't talked to Him in a century.

As I reflect on the past week, I'm realizing how differently a lot of situations could have gone had I taken it to God. There were two separate accounts in the past week where I witnessed people I love more than anything making decisions that hurt them. I became upset at myself, beating myself up for not doing more to keep them away from these decisions. But I didn't even take enough time to go back and offer them up in prayer, the greatest thing you can do for anyone. I was more concerned with how I could help them on my own, than how I know God can handle it.

We honestly can't do anything without God's grace. But we have to remember that with it, there's nothing we can't do. My favorite verse is Isaiah 41:13, which says, "For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.'" If that wasn't enough for me to hear tonight, right after I read that verse, the song Let The Waters Rise by Mikeschair sang, "You were faithful before, You'll be faithful again, I'm holding Your hand." He's holding our hand, but we have to remember to reach out and hold it back, letting ourselves rely on Him. He is always faithful, and we will never have to face any storm alone because He is with us. We all have highs and lows in our prayer lives, but I challenge y'all and am praying for y'all as you work on creating a greater dependency on Christ, and please pray for me to continue to be more diligent in mine as well!

In His Name,

Ali 

alimartinez11@gmail.com