Free Us From Ourselves

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We usually interpret Christ’s words, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35) as something like, “Making yourself last of all and a servant of all will make you first in the Kingdom of God.” Christ makes it crystal clear through His teaching that serving others is paramount if we wish to follow Him. Now, let’s look at this verse from a different angle. What if He’s also saying, “If you want to be first, you will be the last of all and a servant of all.” How does that change our understanding of His words, and what is this ‘all’ He’s talking about?

Most of us know at least one person who puts himself first. Sometimes that person is us. In his arrogance, this person believes that he deserves special privileges. He loves the spotlight. He disregards others’ circumstances and believes that his needs are more important and more urgent than those of anyone else. In his mind, his hurtful behavior is justified; he believes he’s right and everyone else is wrong. And so we pray for him, and we pray for us to become compassionate toward him.

How will this person become ‘last of all’? Think of the kid in school who cut in front of everyone in line and then got sent to the back of the line. When we put ourselves at the top, we may be told to go to the bottom. When we put ourselves first, everyone else puts us last.

What is the ‘all’ that this person may become a servant to? He becomes a servant of his arrogance, his desire for special treatment, and his need for the spotlight. He’ll be driven by his craving to be first and so he becomes a servant of his emotions and others’ opinions of him. 

So maybe the Lord is saying both: To be great in God’s eyes, we have to serve others. And, if we insist on making ourselves first, we’ll become last and a servant of that desire.

It’s easy to fall prey to that craving, so let’s pray for humility. Let’s ask our Lord to free us from the slavery of arrogance. Let’s ask Him to free us from our hurtful desires.  

Let’s ask Christ to turn our focus away from ourselves and to take advantage of opportunities to serve others, to work not only for what will benefit us but also for what will benefit them. Let’s ask our Lord to free us from ourselves and our self-serving desires.

“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” 

– Mark 9:35

Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

Comments are always welcome! Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. 

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list. 

You can also find my posts on my Facebook page!

P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the people around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Do You Still Not Understand?

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“ARGH!” 

If you’ve ever tried to express yourself to someone and they just wouldn’t listen, then you know the feeling of exasperation.

Sometimes we think of difficult emotions like exasperation as ‘bad’ emotions. We may erroneously think that we should always feel happy. We may think, too, that because Jesus was God, He always felt happy. 

But Jesus was also a man, with all of our human emotions. We see this in Mark’s gospel, right after He performs several miracles, including feeding the multitudes. The Pharisees insist He give them yet another sign to prove Himself. Mark writes, ‘He sighed from the depth of His spirit’ (Mark 8:12). That’s quite a vivid description of Christ’s exasperation! Later, when the apostles fail to grasp the meaning behind His miracles, He sounds frustrated with their lack of comprehension: “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:21).

These verses, and others, remind us of Jesus’ humanity. He felt frustrated, sad, afraid, and all the rest, just like we do. He felt tempted to do what He wanted instead of what His Father wanted, just like we do. And, He felt the same kinds of physical discomforts that we do. Surely, His back and feet hurt after a full day of healing people. He certainly felt agonizing physical pain during His passion. 

What does all this mean for us? When we realize that Jesus experienced the same emotions and challenges we do, He becomes more approachable. He’s not some elusive being in the sky. No. He wants to be in a deep relationship with us, and He goes to great lengths to draw us closer to Himself.

Listen to what Our Lord may be telling you today:

Do you still not understand?

Do you not see all I have given you, and done for you?

Do you not see all the miracles around you?

Do you insist on having more?

When will you understand that everything I do and have done for you is to bring you closer to Me? To let you see yourself as I see you, love yourself as I love you, love others as I love you?

I want you to come close to Me, to learn from Me, to share your day with Me, all your joys and sorrows and accomplishments and challenges. Come to Me and bring them all to Me. Let Me show you how much I delight in you.

Look all around you. See the miracles. Let gratitude fill you.

See My love for you in everything and everyone I have given you.

See the meaning behind the miracles. See how I use them to bring you to Me. Come closer to Me.

Listen to Him. Trust Him. He wants you to go deeper.

“He said to them, ‘Do you still not understand?’” – Mark 8:21 

Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

Comments are always welcome! Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. 

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list. 

You can also find my posts on my Facebook page!

P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the people around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

When I Behold Your Heavens

 

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“How cool is it that the same God who created oceans and mountains and galaxies thought the world needed one of you, too.” – Unknown

Imagine God creating you: He’s holding you in His hands, looking at you with a loving smile on His face as He works. Imagine Him pouring heaping amounts of love, peace, and joy inside of you. Imagine Him holding tiny you up to His cheek, His heart bursting with love for you. 

You are one of God’s wonders! Maybe you’ve felt insignificant standing next to a giant sequoia or at the foot of a mountain. Maybe you’ve marveled at the magnificence of His creation while scuba diving or looking through a telescope. Maybe you appreciate the beauty of nature all around you. Small as you are, God cares for you more than all of those other wonders! How can we understand this? This might help: If you have a pet, certainly you love that pet. But your love for your friends, spouse, kids, and grandkids is different from your love for your pet; it’s immeasurable. In a similar way, God loves you in a more profound way than He loves the rest of creation.

You might be thinking, “Who am I that You care for me? There are billions of people in the world, and our world is one tiny part of the universe. How can You love me?”

Listen to what our Lord may be saying to you:

“Let Me wrap My arms around you. I love you. I made you! I made you like nobody else.

No one can contribute to the world like you can.

No one else has your heart that loves like you do.

No one else has your personality to show Me to the world like you can.

No one else has your precise set of talents to bring My joy and peace to the world like you can.

Yes, I created the universe. All of it – what you see and can’t see, and even those things you can’t imagine.

I also created you, because I love you. 

I created you because the world needs you. 

I need you to throw off the cloak of discouragement and despair and let My love burn in your heart.

Let My love fill you with such joy that you have to share it with the people around you.

The world needs to experience My love, and I need you to show it to them.

Ponder the awesomeness of God. Let Him set your heart on fire with His love, His peace, and His joy.

“When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You set in place – what is mankind that you should be mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” – Psalm 8:3-4

Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

Comments are always welcome! Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. 

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list. 

You can also find my posts on my Facebook page!

P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the people around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

The Power of Huddles

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This week before the Super Bowl seems like an appropriate time to make some comparisons between football and life. (Hey, I have three brothers! I ‘get’ the game!) 

In football, each team is one unit, yet individual players contribute their respective talents toward the shared mission of winning the game. In their quest to score touchdowns, those who play offense strategize before the game and then, more importantly, they meet in huddles on a regular basis to check their progress and encourage one another. Huddling and working together to utilize every player’s skills make the whole team stronger.

In life, God has given us ‘teams’ that provide us with opportunities to contribute to the common good and to strengthen us as we work toward our goals of loving and serving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. These teams include our family, friends, work, church, and the organizations we participate in.

Community is important – we strengthen our ‘offense’ by working together with our teams to reach those goals. One powerful way to do this is to ‘huddle’ on a regular basis. When we huddle, we forge bonds with the other members; we affirm and support each other; we make each other stronger. Family huddles include setting aside time to listen to each other, maybe at mealtimes. Huddles with our coworkers, friends, and group members include meetings, social gatherings, and rehearsals. Huddles to strengthen our spiritual resolve include participating in Mass and other services and receiving God’s grace through the sacraments. 

Football is a rough game. The defense will do everything they can to crush the offense. They huddle to communicate their plan of attack. The offense’s huddles help them anticipate the defense’s tactics so they’re not caught by surprise.  

Life can be rough, too. Evil forces in the world attack us – they use all kinds of tactics to stop us from reaching our goals. We experience this, for example, when we rationalize our persistence in what we know are unloving or hurtful actions. We see this, too, when we run into determined interference in our efforts to huddle with our teams – huddles that would strengthen our relationships and our efforts to serve God and others. These challenges are part of life; as Christ told His followers, “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

Thank God for the teams He’s given us, and the huddles we participate in, that strengthen us in our efforts to love and serve God and our neighbor.

“May the God of peace… furnish you with all that is good, that you may do His will. May He carry out in you what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ…” 

– Hebrews 13:20-21

Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.

Thank you for reading my reflection!  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words.    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

Comments are always welcome! Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. 

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list. 

You can also find my posts on my Facebook page!

P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.