**God Expects High Expectations*

        Jake Shimabukuro is an amazing ukulele virtuoso from Hawaii. People who have seen him play often come away with a new love and respect for the instrument. He jokes that one of the best things about a traveling ukulele player is that audiences all over the world have such low expectations. I bring this up because I want to say that one of the best things about following Christ is that we can have our highest expectations of the Lord and still come away being amazed by him! 

To Be More like Jesus

        Jesus connects with his people because his messages are authentic, concrete, aiming directly at the heart and soul. And you remember his sayings forever. The least effective messages you hear today are inauthentic, abstract and intellectual, and not coming from the heart, more like observations. They are instantly forgettable, leaving no impact. We are not Jesus, but by seeking to attain union with him, we can be more like him in every way.

Amazing Jewish Belief

        It is amazing that the Lord God did speak to the Israelites from the very beginning. That explains why the Jewish people had always believed in the one personal God.  

**My Fulfillment

        If you find something that is so precious and means everything to you, you would be so happy to want to hold onto it and never let it go. Can this happen in real life? Yes. I've found Christ the Lord to be that something. I don't even need to hold onto him, for he swoops me into his kingdom and I am his forever. He is my fulfillment and the cause of all my joy!

**Still Self-Centeredness*

        We try to make all things turn out perfectly, and if they don't, we are upset. Meanwhile, we never think about trying to be perfect ourselves so that God might be pleased. You don't think about yourselves, but it's all about yourself. It's still pure self-centeredness all right.

No Part-Time Christians

        Following Christ is a full-time job, so anyone working only part-time as a Christian is being derelict and risk not being able to get into the kingdom of God. The Lord demands our full commitment and we need to give it to him.

*How Comfortable with the Lord?

        How comfortable you are with God indicates how well you know him. If you feel completely comfortable with the Lord as if you were already with him in heaven, then you are already on your way there.  

**No Abandonment to God

        Many people, especially the older folks, have been set in their ways and don't wish to change anymore. They often say that God has made them that way as their reason or excuse. The reality is that everyone needs to change unceasingly for the better – to become holier to be precise, for the Lord demands that. So we must always be open to God to let him do whatever he wishes with us. Unfortunately, this is the stumbling block for those who still hold onto the world and themselves. Even though freedom is totally with their reach, they stay put in their sorry state. 

**Our Big Frailty

        In today's world of propagandas, fake news, and self-promotion, it's so easy for us to fall for whatever we hear. If we do not discern carefully, we get deceived or manipulated. We must listen only to God, the God of Christ. To safeguard you soul, make knowing the Lord well your first order of business so that you may hear his voice.     

***Our Goal of Life

      I quoted what Jesus said in Matthew 5.48 under the heading of this blog: "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Therefore, to be perfect should be the goal of our life. Since it is the will of God, he will make it possible for us! We can make the perfect surrender to him through receiving the Holy Eucharist to become like the Lord.

***Freedom in the Lord

        To be free is to be free of the world we live in, for the world can easily entice, trap, and shackle us. God sets us free by severing our attachment to the world after we discover his love, beauty, and power. Since God never enslaves us, we remain free in him forever!

*When Will You Be Ready to Die?

        When will you be ready to leave this world? After you've had the chance to visit Paris or the Great Wall of China? After your get to see your grandchild born? After you've had time to straighten out your real estate business? There can be a host of different answers. But I see one answer that is most "correct" – it is "after you have accomplished all the work the Lord has assigned you to do, whatever it is." It would be so good when you meet the Lord to hear him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy" (Matthew 25.23).

**Most Important Realization*

        We may look around and see all the beautiful buildings, houses, neighborhoods, trees, etc., and we may look very nice to everyone else ourselves too. Yet we fail to realize that we sin against the holy Lord God! When he looks down at us, he looks at our hearts. If they are not pure, he would see a sea of black stains, nothing beautiful about that. So take care of your hearts and souls first before the buildings, houses, neighborhood, trees, etc. 

***Keeping Our Motivation Pure

        Suppose you want to praise someone. What motivates you to do so? (1) To make him or her like you, so you can feel good? (2) To make that person feel good? (3) To please God? The first motivation is definitely impure, for it involves egos. We can be sure that the last motivation is pure. It's not always easy to discern our motivation quickly or in advance if we are not in close union with God. But to be holy, we must aim at keeping our motivation pure. 

***Our Only Mission in Life

        Communion experience. We can never love God enough. Our only mission in life should be to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, as Jesus had commanded us. Let everything else follow from this.

**Our Response to God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus told the crowd the parable of the sower:

        "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear."

        How do you respond to the Word of God? Does it take root in you? How you respond will determine your eternal destiny! Something you definitely ought to be aware of.

**A Hurdle to Overcome

        Jesus makes it clear that we need to obey God. If we all do it, we would all be saints and have peace in the world. Therefore, obedience to God is the hurdle we are to overcome. Seeking to attain union with God is the way to meet that challenge. The key to success is to surrender yourself to God. If God is unavoidable, surrendering to him is in order and becomes unavoidable too. Once you attain union, you might think that you have reached the climax, but it's somewhat anticlimactic in the sense that you now find obeying God to be no sweat at all. In fact, it's exactly what you want to do. 

**Follow Christ like the Apostles

        Christ was here 2,000 years ago and, we do not see or hear him in person today. Nevertheless, since God transcends both time and space, we can confidently follow him as the Apostles did after he called them to follow him.