This weekend Catherine and I are taking the teens in our youth group on retreat. The theme for the weekend is "Game Plan For Life" which LifeTeen put out a few years ago. At first I wasn't too impressed with it but the more I prayed with the retreat, the more I realized how we really do need a "game plane" for this life.
I'm giving the fourth talk of the weekend about dreaming big dreams. As I was praying about this, I was faced with the question, "What does it mean to dream big dreams"? Many people dream of being a great doctor, to cure cancer or solve world hunger. All of these aspirations are great and admirable, but beg a certain question. Are these dreams that we want so as to glorify Our Lord or are these dreams something we desire simply to glorify ourselves? You see, I think for our dreams to be truly "big", they must include Our Lord!
For me, my big dream is to be a saint, which is a huge dream, but not far-fetched. I want to be known as a lover of souls, like Jesus was. I want to be able to kneel before the King of kings at the end of time and show Him all of the souls I was able to bring with me, not for my glory, but for His! Often times I look at myself, my mistakes, failings and sins, and I wonder if God really knew what He was doing when He gave me the gift of discerning my religious vocation. Of course, God knows what He's doing, but often times, in those moments, I look at myself not as God really sees me. You see, when the Lord looks at us, He sees a weak feeble person whom He so desires to love! Many times we feel as though we have to earn someone'e love. Often times we feel like they have to get to know us, they have to understand where we are and some of our faults before they can truly say that they love us. It's not that way with Jesus! And I LOVE it!! Love is not something that is earned, but something that is freely given! I consider it a great gift and privilege to be able to look at someone and love them without knowing anything about them. So many times, when I feel the most vulnerable and the weakest is when God just looks and at me and loves me. I don't have to explain myself to Him. I can sit in His presence and feel Him "love on me".
I'm convinced that in letting ourselves be loved by the Lover of Souls, He will truly teach us how to become a lover of souls. This small grace will enable us to dream big dreams. The biggest dream we can have as Catholic Christians is to be become saints, through any dream that the Lord inspires us with, whether it's to be a great doctor, to cure cancer or to solve world hunger. We can only be great if we allow Our Lord to be great in our lives!
Let us pray for the grace to allow God to love us and to become what we were truly created to be, saints!
Written by Alycia
