My "Fiat" -- "YES, LORD!"

By reader's request:

My "Fiat"-- "YES, LORD!"

By Leona Choy

(Like Mary in Luke 1:38. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.")

Because I belong to God by His purchase ("you have been bought with a price..." 1 Corinthians 6:19) and by my surrender to Him ("present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice..." Romans 12:1) the following is my acceptable response to losses, illnesses, disappointments, adversities, and problems of any kind:

I will therefore:

ACCEPT WHATEVER GOD GIVES ME--with joyful heart and continued thanks.
YES, LORD, I thank You for Your goodness. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

BE CONTENT WITH WHAT GOD WITHHOLDS--companionship, health, material things, even life itself.
YES, LORD, I bow to Your loving will and plan for my life. Psalm 84:11

ENDURE WHATEVER GOD ALLOWS IN MY LIFE--in His strength, not my own.
YES, LORD, without complaint. 2 Corinthians 12:9

HOLD ALL THINGS OF EARTH LOOSELY--live with Eternity's values in view.
YES, LORD, Even so, come Lord Jesus! 2 Peter 3:11-12

LIVE FOR TODAY AND FOR JESUS ONLY--celebrate each moment as a gift from God.
YES, LORD, to the praise of the glory of Your grace. 2 Corinthians 5:15

***********

"We must accept the adversities which God sends us without reasoning too much upon them, and we must take for granted that it is the best thing which could happen to us. We must remember that God does everything well, although we may not see the reason for what He does." Saint Philip Neri (1595)

HOLD LOOSELY

Leona Choy

I must hold loosely
all, yes, ALL
the precious things I have
the urgent things I do
on which my eyes are fixed
on which my heart is set
treasures I can't forget
May they not enfold me
seize me and hold me
force me and mold me
into their image

God forbid
that in my hand
I grip too tightly
the appealing things of earth
which are not of worth
May I regard them lightly
and hold them
all, yes, ALL
loosely.

#END

I WANT TO FLY!

I WANT TO FLY

By Leona Choy

Jesus, I know You understand
my need to fly
You walked the dusty Judean hills
earthbound for a season
yet You walked on water too
eventually You flew into the heavens
before the invention of planes
or space shuttles.

My spirit was born with wings
but the ordinariness of life
keeps them clipped or at least
locked behind me with handcuffs
to prevent me from taking off
into the sky lanes.

I have a suppressed hunger for free flight
for newness and ecstasy
for breaking loose from gravity
I live with the urge
to explore the uncharted
and search for tantalizing treasures.

I yearn for abandon to kick off my shoes
and run barefooted
through meadows wet with dew
and not worry about snakes and thorns
or who's watching me.

I'm tired of mediocre achieving
and being dependably responsible
I'm weary of plugging along
and resigning myself to gray life
I'd rather move toward risk.

Lord, have compassion on my unrest
I'm really hard pressed
to settle for the humdrum
I don't ask for swift descent
from the pinnacle of the temple
with the safe arrangement
of a catch-net at the bottom
in case the angels are on coffee break.

You talked about it Yourself, Lord
You promised a life of MORE
You offered ABUNDANT--
whatever it means
that's what I'm looking for!

If I'm not asking too much, Lord
would You let me enroll
in Your class
on Water Walking 101?

#END

UNDER HIS LORDSHIP

By request, I copy here my DAILY MORNING PRAYER by which I've lived for a lifetime.


MY COMMITMENT.
Jesus Christ, You are Lord of my life. Reign as King with full authority over my body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions, and will. Rule over all that I am, all that I have, all that You have given me. I affirm Your Lordship over every relationship, responsibility, appetite, and ambition.
"I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." (Romans 12:1)

TRANSFORM ME.
Continue this day to shape me into Your image through whatever circumstances You choose to bring into my life. Mold me until You finish the work You chose from before the foundation of the world to do in and through me.
"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

LIVE THROUGH ME. Jesus, You live in me by Your indwelling Holy Spirit. Help me express Your life as I walk in the Spirit. May I not respond in the flesh either to adversity or prosperity."
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)

I WANT TO GLORIFY YOU. I want to be a vessel clean and pure to glorify You as I carry the treasure of Your presence and power. I desire to keep myself open to the continuous filling of Your Holy Spirit. I want to bear more fruit to please You and to use whatever gifts of the Spirit You give me to help build Your Kingdom.
"We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves." (2 Corinthians 4:7)

SCHEDULE FOR ME. This day bring into my life everything and only whatever and whomever You ordain--in person, by letter, e-mail, phone call, thought, impression, prayer, event, or circumstance. Interruptions and changes are not accidental or incidental but my opportunities and Your appointments for my good and for Your glory.
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

GRANT ME DISCERNMENT. Show me Your priorities for the hours of this day. As I follow Your guidance, give me Your strength and wisdom to accomplish the tasks that You've specifically appointed for me. I want to hear Your voice clearly, to obey and follow You fully. May I be careful to abide in You and maintain my "first-love" relationship with You. While I do the good works You have commanded, may they not deter me from a close walk with You.
"Martha was distracted...worried and bothered about so many things; but only a new things are necessary, really only one...." (Luke 10:40-42)

MY ASSURANCE. As I daily offer myself and surrender to Your Lordship, may Your will be done in my life on earth as it is in Heaven. I need not be anxious about the direction of my life nor current decisions. Jesus, I trust in You. I trust in Your love and plan for my life, the instruction of Your Holy Word, the guidance of Your Holy Church, and the leading of Your Holy Spirit.
"I am confident of this, that He who began a good work in you, will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

# END

FLASHBACK and PRESSING FORWARD

Do I hesitate to tell my age? Not at all! Long life is a blessing from God; I've lived under His loving, protective care through the ups and downs of life, in times of adversity and times of joy and privilege for "80-something" years.

My 31st published book was my autobiography: CZECHING MY ROOTS--the heritage saga of my life and my ancestry. I thought I was finished with my life of adventures and opportunities. After all, what more could there be? Little did I know of surprises and changes yet to come! You may go to My Links on this blog, click on my publishing web site www.goldenmorning.com, then "Biographies" if you'd like an overview of my life story.

Upon returning from my promotional speaking tour for that book, a surprise paradigm shift in my spiritual journey demanded that I write an autobiographical sequel. My life story continued to unfold in wonderful, unbelievable ways! You can read about that by going to My Links, click on www.catholic.com, scroll to THIS ROCK magazine, to 2007, to September issue, Vol. 18 #7, to Damascus Road, to Leona Choy.

To listen to my one-hour, live, international TV interview on one of the largest TV networks in the world, follow these threads: www.ewtn.com/audiovideo/index.asp. Click Multimedia on the top selection bar, go to "Archived video or audio," scroll down to JOURNEY HOME near the end, then all the way to the bottom of the page to "Audio Library." Click Journey Home on the bar, then Select a Program. In the line of numbers at the bottom, click 3. Scroll down the programs to #81, November 13, 2006, Leona Choy, Former evangelical missionary. (If you'd like to see the program, a DVD of my interview is available from EWTN.)

I've recently completed writing the Sequel to my ROOTS book titled JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF MORE. The manuscript is on the editorial desk of a major publisher as we speak.

The August 14-20, 2008 issue of the ARLINGTON CATHOLIC HERALD which covers 68 parishes in 22 counties of the Virginia diocese featured my story in their series "Journeys in Faith."

We can dialogue more about all this later. This will get you up to speed--IF you happen to be interested.

#END

HINDRANCES TO HAPPINESS?

"Our happiness should not depend on the work we are doing, the place we are in, whether we are married or not, on our friends, our health or lack of these, our age, our abundance or want, whether people notice us or not, praise us or not, understand us or not.
No single one of these circumstances has any power in itself to upset my joy in God. But it can instantly and utterly quench it, if we look AT the circumstances instead of UP into the face of our God."

By Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways, p. 127

#END

SIMPLIFICATION vs ACCUMULATION

"Summer time, when the livin' is easy...." So goes the song about lazy days of summer. When I was a child, it was a slow paced season to do nothing. Oh, maybe run barefoot in the dewy morning grass, put on my swim suit and run through the sprinkler of the hose in the hot noonday sun, catch fireflies after dark and collect them in a pop bottle, and sit out on the porch with parents and neighbors hoping to catch the slightest breeze, (no a/c then!) and chat about the events of the day over fresh lemonade...."
Now summer runs through the calendar at break neck speed; it seems somehow shorter and more hurried than the rest of the seasons. Where is the leisure time I counted on? The list of things I planned to get done "to simplify my life" is as long as when I wrote it. The item about going through my storage areas and getting rid of the accumulated clutter of decades? Oh, there is just TOO MUCH STUFF!

(Sing to the tune of Three Blind Mice)

Too much stuff, too much stuff; more than enough, more than enough,
It's bulging my closets and filling my space; it's growing and spilling all over the place,
I'm tripping all over a terrible case...of TOO MUCH STUFF!

Too much stuff, too much stuff; more than enough, more than enough,
The piles are staring me right in the face, they multiply at an alarming pace,
And soon I'll be buried without a trace...in TOO MUCH STUFF!

Too much stuff, too much stuff; more than enough, more than enough,
It isn't easy to run life's race, with all of this stuff slowing down my pace,
I think that I need some additional grace...(to get rid of) SO MUCH STUFF!
Well, maybe I'll get to it when winter comes!

(Words by Janet Lindeblad Janzen, Copyright 1990
Permission to copy for free distribution granted)

(An antidote to worldly accumulation: Matthew 6:19-21)

#END

RETIRE OR REFIRE?

As the years advance, most of us hopefully think more seriously about making the rest of our earthly journey productive and meaningful. For me, that means in part that I should "put my house in order" and hone my goals more sharply. It is time to thank God for blessings of the past, celebrate the present, and anticipate the future. I spelled it out for myself in the following four ways:

Focus on keeping the main thing the main thing--to seek God and His Kingdom first.
Simplify my material "stuff"--generously give much of it away or decisively throw it away.
Prioritize my goals and time and efforts as if I had little time left to accomplish them.
Anticipate that God will still give me generous time to serve and glorify Him.

That means that I will try to:

Eliminate or limit pursuits that no longer contribute to life goals God has given me.
Surrender any cares of this world that hinder me from an ever-closer relationship with God.
Seek wisdom from God to know where and how I should press forward harder.
Discern where I should lighten up, cut myself some slack, and smell those roses.
Obey fully by doing promptly whatever God reveals as His will and purpose for me.

God requires different things of us in different seasons of our lives. Let's live fully in the present at whatever season or stage of life we find ourselves. God gives each of us abilities and opportunities that He expects us to use responsibly. We are accountable to be faithful stewards only of what we have been given, not for what someone else has received.

I am a goal setter and deadline pusher by temperament. I'll probably never consider myself "finished" when earthly life is over. There will always be more that I want to do, to become, to write, to express, to learn, to enjoy, to experience, and to reach for. When God's allotted time for my life is over, I'll undoubtedly still have exciting projects on the back burner. But God, who planned my life in detail and prepared my days before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 2:10) will count my work and life "complete."

Until then, I invite you to join me to push the horizons of our minds and our spirits further, attempt more, learn more, create more, pray more, take up new challenges and opportunities and live on the cutting edge of life. "Ya gotta use it or you'll lose it!" The more we stretch, the higher we can reach. We want everything God planned for us, don't we? Let's especially enjoy to the full all our relationships with families and friends; they are special treasures.

(Excerpt from my book in progress, "FINISHING IT UP--With a Flourish," a sequel to my published book "LIVING IT UP! Meditations for 'Seasoned Saints'")

#END