Devotional Thought of the Day:
¹  If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1 (Phillips NT)

³¹  So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT)

280    If you lose the supernatural meaning of your life, your charity will be philanthropy; your purity, decency; your mortification, stupidity; your discipline, a lash; and all your works, fruitless.  (1)

Every so often I find my e-mail and Twitter filled with advertisements or advice for being effective, for improving your impact, Ways to ensure you have meaning in what you do.  Go through this program, master these five trips, follow your passion, it seems like everyone has somewhere between three and twelve things to become successful in life. 

Josemaria Escriva encourages us to one thing – a simple thing. To enjoy God, to be set apart to Him, to adore Him as you realize that He cares for you, that He loves you.  Without it, all of our other actions, our sacrifices, our suffering, our prayers and worship and dedication to orthodoxy, is worthless.

To be blunt, if we live apart from the love of God, if we ignore his presence, we could be Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, John Calvin and St Augustine rolled into one, and we would have wasted our lives.

Yeah – living supernaturally, living dependent on God, having an intimate relationship with God is that important.

Ultimately, without it, nothing else matters, nothing else is worth it.   With it, everything becomes an incredible blessing.

This is why baptism matters because God makes you His own as He baptizes you.  That is why the Eucharist, Communion, the Lord’s Supper should be CELEBRATED, for the feast is God and man, together.  The same can be said for our times talking to God, hearing His voice, meditating on His word and simply resting, confident and secure in His presence.

That is where the peace comes from that we need to know if we are to survive the grind of life.  It is where our healing comes into play, where lives are reconciled, where we find that we are God’s work of art.

It is where we find that reality isn’t based on our emotion or our logic, but on His love and what He reveals to us because of that love.

St Paul is clear to the church in Corinth of this very same point – that without the love of God, even it doesn’t matter what we do, we have no value, no worth. But knowing that love?  It transforms us and causes us to do that which is amazing, we can bring God glory.

So don’t set aside your time with Him, enjoy it, savor it, relax and have fun with your Father.  Everything else will then fall into place.

Godspeed!

(1)   Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 745-746). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.