LIVE FORWARD

“It’s pretty amazing out there. The world is full of more possibilities than there’s ever been, and the more you live forward, the more you need someone standing behind you.

This is about doing, enabling, partnering, so that you can get the most out of every moment, no matter whether it’s your smallest need or your biggest ambition. Because the more you take on the world, the more you need someone who’s got your back. So whatever you do, wherever you go, don’t take on the world without it. Don’t live life without it.”

Who, or what is it that we need to take on the world?

“Respond to the invitation, the prompting, the movement of the Spirit. He never leaves us alone. We speak of him as this Hound of Heaven, chasing after us. He’s massaging our heart. He’s the stream of living water, pouring over the hardness of our heart and trying to open it up. And at a certain point, he prevails. Recognize even in that moment that the Spirit gave the invitation. Be encouraged in that, and continue to ask the Spirit for that gift. Receive and be responsive, asking ‘help me to hear you and to respond to you... I am so perfectly attuned to you.’

This is what we want to be as believers. You’ll be amazed with what the Spirit does in your life.”

Now, let me assign ownership of these two messages. The first is a 15 second sound bite from American Express. The second is a homily message from Father Anthony Mary, MFVA.

How can they possibly intersect?

We live in the real world, the secular world, where products are developed, manufactured and sold. To drive sales, the priority given to marketing often exceeds that allocated to quality, and we hear messages like the first one. Our emotions are driven to a crescendo as emotional need is planted, nurtured, and harvested. We need this thing. Badly.

We need to reach outside our world and bring it in.

In a spiritual world, the need presented is actually the same, but its process works in the opposite way. The outside world creates the need, but it is a stirring inside us that presents the solution.

We need to reach inside ourselves and bring it out.

Let’s not miss the message.

It is pretty amazing out there. The world is full of possibilities. The more we live forward, the more we need someone standing behind us.

It is a profound call to action.

It is a reminder of an invitation.

It is the gift of spirit to Spirit.

Let’s not miss the connection.

“Don’t live life without it.”

“You’ll be amazed with what the Spirit does in your life.”