{"id":21262,"date":"2022-04-21T09:52:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T13:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21262"},"modified":"2022-04-21T10:26:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:26:00","slug":"god-is-with-us-through-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21262","title":{"rendered":"God is With Us Through It All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YhCzzQQNnLA\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard\nshares how we can receive the miracle of new life by embracing our own\ndifficulties and \u201cdeaths\u201d as Jesus did<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Death is not only physical dying. Death also means going to the full depths of things, hitting the bottom, going beyond where we\u2019re in control. <\/strong>In that sense, we all go through many deaths in our lives, tipping points when we have to ask, <em>\u201cWhat am I going to do?\u201d <\/em>Many people turn bitter, look for someone to blame, and close down. <strong>Their \u201cdeath\u201d is indeed death for them because there is no room for growth after that. But when we go into the full depths and death of anything\u2014even, ironically, the depths of our own sin\u2014we can come out the other side transformed, more alive, <\/strong>more open, more forgiving of ourselves and others. And when we come out the other side, we know that we\u2019ve been led there. <strong>We\u2019re not holding on; we\u2019re being held by a larger force, by a larger source that is not our own. That\u2019s what it means to be saved! It means that we\u2019ve walked through the mystery of transformation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The miracle of it all\u2014if we are to speak of miracles\u2014is that God has found the most ingenious way to transform the human soul. <strong>God uses the very thing that would normally destroy us\u2014the tragic, the sorrowful, the painful, the unjust deaths that lead us all to the bottom of our lives\u2014to transform us.<\/strong> There it is, in one sentence. Are we prepared to trust that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection is a statement of how reality works all the time and everywhere. <strong>He teaches us that there\u2019s a different way to live with our pain, our sadness, and our suffering.<\/strong> We can say, \u201cWoe is me,\u201d and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can say, \u201cGod is even in this.\u201d And that\u2019s what Jesus did on Good Friday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>None of us crosses over this gap from death to new life by our own effort, our own merit, our own purity, or our own perfection. <strong>Each of us\u2014from pope to president, from princess to peasant\u2014is carried across by unearned grace. Worthiness is never the ticket, only deep desire. With that desire the tomb is always, finally empty,<\/strong> as Mary Magdalene discovered on Easter morning. Death cannot win. We\u2019re finally indestructible when we recognize that the thing which could destroy us is the very thing that could enlighten us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Friends, the Easter feast is a reminder to all of us to open our eyes and our ears and to witness what is happening all around us, all the time, everywhere. God\u2019s one and only job description is to turn death into life. That\u2019s what God does with every new springtime, every new life, every new season, every new anything. <strong>God is the one who always turns death into life, and no one who trusts in this God will ever be put to shame (Psalm 25:3).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Romans 8:6<\/strong><\/em><strong>. New International Version &#8230; The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Genesis 1:26-27  <br>Then God said, \u201cLet us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over .. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Romans 8:6  <br>The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. &#8230; So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death\u00a0. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Richard shares how we can receive the miracle of new life by embracing our own difficulties and \u201cdeaths\u201d as Jesus did.&nbsp; Death is not only physical dying. Death also means going to the full depths of things, hitting the bottom, going beyond where we\u2019re in control. In that sense, we all go through many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21262"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21262"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21268,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21262\/revisions\/21268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}