Ok, here's the story:
A couple nights ago, I was making dinner. I was sick of cooking inside, so I decided to have my own barbecue (cause that isn't sad, right?). I had finally gotten the coals all heated up and was in the process of making some burgers, when I head my phone's text tone go off three times in a row.
That meant one of two things;
A. I just got three rapid fire texts from three different people
Or
B. Someone just sent me a really long text message.
The answer was B. A friend who was on vacation texted me asking for help. She explained how her former roommate's father needed some help and asked if I could go and run an errand for them?
How did I respond?
"UUUUGGGGGGGG"
I didn't text that to her, but that is what I said as I was reading this text. Honestly, I was a little annoyed. I felt as though this text had ruined my plans for the nights. All I wanted was to do was make some food, watch the latest episode of Fairy Tail and chill out. Is that too much to ask?
I considered saying no, but my kryptonite is that when someone needs help, no matter how much I don't want to, I will help them. So I quickly finished making the burgers, threw them on the grill, grabbed my bike and rode off. Luckily my destination wasn't too far away, but I knew that I had to make this errand fast so that my burgers wouldn't burn.
Long story short; my mission only took about 15 minutes, so by the time that I got back home my burgers were cooked and ready to eat. Everything had worked out just fine and it didn't bother me anymore.
As I was cleaning up my mess and preparing for dinner, I thought about how annoyed I had been just 20 minutes earlier. And what was I even annoyed about? Someone needed my help, and that somehow ruined my entire Friday night? It wasn't that I didn't want to help at the time, but rather that I felt that it was inconvenient to me.
Here's what I realized through all this; God is not convenient.
God is not watching us and thinking "Tony looks busy. I'll call on him later." No. When God calls us to do something, we are expected to drop whatever we are doing and do as He commands. No questions asked.
Think of it like the DEAR time we had in grade school. DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time was that half hour of the day that we were supposed to stop whatever we were doing and read. Instead of DEAR time, God has DEAL (Drop Everything and Love) time. Its times like this one, where God is calling us to do something selfless for others. He is calling us to serve His people and forget about ourselves, which we should be doing all the time anyway.
Think about Peter, Andrew, James and John. When Jesus called them, they IMMEDIATELY stopped their work and followed Him. You gotta remember that these guys were fisherman. Fishing was their whole lives, and to think that they would just abandon their life's work to follow some guy named Jesus might sound crazy to some. But they did leave. They left their homes, their families, and their livelihoods to follow Jesus and be His first disciples. There are plenty of other examples of Jesus calling us to give up what we have to follow Him. The rich young man was a great example. When Jesus told him to sell of all his world possessions, the young man left sad because he had a great number of possessions. The problem wasn't that the guy was too rich to follow Jesus, but that this guy loved his things more than he loved God. His priorities were out of order and that was why he couldn't follow Jesus, because when He calls on you, you drop everything, even your most treasured possessions, to follow Him. Again, DEAL.
This is probably the reason why I had so much trouble leaving my Friday plans behind to go help someone in need; my priorities were out of order. This has been a problem for me, because I still have trouble putting God first in my life. It's also a possibility that I prefer to DEAL when it is convenient, which unfortunately, has been happening less frequently. Even if God's voice were to speak to me, I imagine that our conversation would go like this:
*Curtain Rises*
God: "Tony, I want you to go out and serve others"
Me: "Ok, but could you wait until I finish this episode of Sword Art Online II first?"
*Tony gets struck by lighting*
*Curtain Falls*
"Fin"
(Just kidding, this would never happen.......I hope)
I believe that I am fully capable of doing God's will whenever He calls me. It's just that night, He caught me off guard. So, I guess the lesson here is to always be ready for God's call, because it could come day or night. Like I said, God does not know the meaning on convenience. I mean, He called Samuel during his beauty rest THREE times.
I know that some of you might have gone through the same thing, but others are always ready for God's call and have their priorities in order. To those people, God bless you, you are true Catholic Badasses. And if you wouldn't mind praying that my priorities get figured out, I would appreciate it.
So children, the word of the week (and the rest of our lives) is DEAL. Drop Everything and Love. Love your neighbor, love your enemy, and most importantly, love God above all things. As we continue our journeys to become Catholic Badasses, lets always be listening to God's call, or text. It will always be worth it in the end.
Peace and Love
Side Note: I also have a new Twitter account: @CatholicBA_Blog. Follow for all your BA goodness!
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