Book of Believers

Agi | mass 17.02.19

I should probably write this a few days ago after I got home from the Sunday mass but I was, am having a horrible cold and headache so I could not bring myself to write this.

Father Jason, one of the friars in my church, had shared a really meaningful message last Sunday that I feel like sharing here with all of you.

He told us a story about this couple, that he had no idea who, suddenly came up to him and asked him if he could be there for their wedding. 

I was confused but very excited. He thought, "wow, these are people that I don't know but somehow they know me, I must be quite popular."

During the meeting with other friars, I brought this up. Father Esmont then said, "oh, that couple, they asked me about a month ago but I could not do it so I told them to ask other friars."

Then Father Clifford also said, "yes, they also asked me two weeks ago but I couldn't do it. I have other things to do on that day."

I was quite sad, you know. I'm not even their second choice. I'm the third choice, you see. 

Do you know why there are substitutes? In games, usually, they are those people who were sitting on the bench, watching over the game, and hoping that they would get to play. The first choice or plan A are players who are in the game. Then maybe the coach sees this and thinks, "this is not working." Plan A was not working, therefore, he would take one of the player out and put the substitute in the game. 

There are two reasons why people are having substitutes. One is because they could not get plan A or their first choice so they go look for a substitute. The other reason is that they have plan A but it is not working so they use the substitute, hoping that it would work things out.

In this world, there are four pillars: Power, Wealth, Pleasure, and Honor, and sometimes we substitute God with one of these.

Instead of being your main plan, you make God a substitute. When things don't work, you look for Him. Or maybe, you pray and pray but nothing happens so you substitute him with one of the pillars. 

The prophet Jeremiah boldly said, "curse those who substitute God with other things!"

When I was outside, I looked at all of you here and it got me thinking. If I was not a priest, I would not spend my Sunday night here. I would probably be at home or outside but not here so I think all of you are on the right path. Because instead of doing other things, pleasurable things on your day off, you are here in this Church glorifying God. I hope that you will continue to stay on this path and not substitute God for anything else.

Father Jason actually gave examples on how we substitute God for each of the pillars but I could not remember the rest three right now. I will update this chapter once I could remember them.

Anyway, I think it is very true. Sometimes we let other things, we put other things over God. He should be our focal point in life yet we often disappoint Him by choosing things that we thought were more important. 

Every time I have these bad thoughts in my head, the devil trying to sway me away from God, I opened the bible and it always gives me the answer. Maybe it works differently for other people or for people with different religion, but I do feel that no matter how hard life is and no matter how hard it is to stay on the right course, we cannot lose our faith. 

Everything happens for a reason, reasons that we, humans, cannot comprehend but the unknown should not be the reason we substitute God with other things. 

Hebrew 11:1 KJV Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

-- Agi x