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.

God Does Great Things With Your Tiny Seeds

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It was a science experiment for 5-year-olds: All the children in a kindergarten class dropped flower seeds into sidewalk cracks around their school to see what would happen. For weeks, they saw nothing. Then, to their delight, flowers sprouted and bloomed in those unlikely habitats! The children didn’t need to understand all the science behind how flowers grow before starting their experiment. They only needed the desire to scatter the seeds. God did the rest. 

Just as God took the children’s efforts and made flowers grow in improbable places, so does He take our good works, both significant and humble, and use them for His purposes. 

With His infinite power, God could heal all diseases, wipe out hunger, provide shelter for the homeless, and make the lonely and lowly feel loved without any input from us. Instead of doing all this on His own, though, He lets us have some ownership in it: He accepts what we humbly and lovingly offer for others. Then He multiplies the benefits and uses it to build His Kingdom. 

We may doubt that we have the necessary skills to make a difference. We may not understand why the need is so great. We may question why God allows so many people to suffer. Yet in the midst of all those unanswerable questions, if we’re willing to work with Him, He’ll take our efforts and use them in ways we could never do on our own.

Listen to what our Lord may be saying to you today:

“What I ask you to do, you may not understand. Trust Me.

You may think you’re incapable of doing big things. Trust Me.

You may think your contributions are insignificant. Trust Me.

I will meet you in the eyes of the poor, the outcast, the forgotten. Offer your hand to them and you’ll grasp Mine. Trust Me.

I will take what you do and turn it into something eternally valuable – even if you don’t see it. Ask Me.

I will strengthen you to go out of your comfort zone. Ask Me.

I will give you courage when you need it. Ask Me.

Like a gardener who plants flower seeds and trusts Me to make them bloom, trust Me to take your seeds of faith and loving works, no matter how small, and use them for My Kingdom.”

Pay attention when God tugs at your heart to reach out to someone in need. You don’t have to have all the answers, just a desire to let Him use what you offer.

“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God: it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.” – Mark 4:26-27

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, in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, 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.

Get Rid of the Clutter

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January is a popular month for going through the house to declutter. We make use of these brutally cold days to go through our closets and get rid of clothes and other items we no longer use. Doing so creates, among other things, a wide open visual space that somehow gives us a freeing feeling.

We can do the same thing for our spiritual life by getting rid of the clutter in our mind and giving God space to speak to us. 

One way He speaks to us is through the Scriptures. Some people think that the Bible is just an old book, offering nothing relevant to our lives today. But that isn’t the case.

The Bible is the living Word of God. It was written by women and men who were inspired by God to write what they wrote. Yes, some of it includes ancient, unfamiliar customs. But the messages still pertain to us, wherever we are and whatever stage of life we’re in. If that weren’t the case, then we’d just have to read the Bible once and we’d know everything there is to know about God. However, God continues to speak to us through the Scriptures as we age, as our faith grows (or weakens), and as our life challenges change. He uses Scripture to demonstrate the immensity of His love for us. This is true even from those passages we’ve already heard countless times. He’ll give us new insights into how they relate to us now if we open our minds and hearts to what He wants to tell us. Get rid of the clutter – the chaos and noise around you – and take a few quiet moments with the Lord. Open the New Testament and read a few passages slowly until something catches your attention. Then, throughout your day, keep those words in mind and every once in a while ask the Lord what He wants you to learn from them. Write down the thoughts that come to you.

God also speaks to us through nature and through each other. ‘Declutter’ here by, say, turning off the radio while you’re driving and letting the magnificence of creation, including the glistening snow, remind you of the power of His love for you. Listen to His love expressed to you through your family and friends. Notice Him working through the people in your community. When you’re standing in line, offer friendly conversation to someone nearby, or use the time to ponder the Scripture passage you’ve read, instead of passing the time on your phone.  

God speaks to us through Scripture, nature, and each other. Let’s clear out the noise and clutter that distracts us from noticing the many ways He’s showing His powerful love to us. Let’s give Him the time and space to speak to us. 

“The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12

Open my heart, Lord, that I may hear You.

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, in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, 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.

Inspired to Love

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Think of a time, maybe when you were in school, when you felt inadequate or unacceptable to some degree. Maybe you had made a mistake and were ridiculed for it. And then, someone – maybe a teacher or a coach – said a kind word to you that made you feel forgiven and accepted, and not condemned. This kindness inspired you to try harder or to make amends for your mistake.  

That teacher or coach was imitating Christ, whether they intended to or not. By offering kindness to you, by not berating you for whatever you had done, and by inspiring you to do better, they did for you what Christ has done, and still does, for so many.

In Jesus’ day, the rabbis and religious leaders looked with contempt on those who were not as ‘blessed’ or ‘holy’ as they thought themselves to be. Whereas these leaders associated only with people like themselves, Jesus hung around with everyone else, including tax collectors and ‘sinners.’ Regardless of their past transgressions, He showed them that they were worthy of His love. He welcomed them and offered them acceptance and love. He gave them dignity. He didn’t accept them so that they could justify their sinful behavior; He loved them so much that they were inspired to abandon their hurtful ways and do their best to live the way of love He was teaching.

We are all loved by God; we’re also sinners. We all make choices – in our thoughts and in our words, in what we do or fail to do – that hurt ourselves or others, or that put a wedge in our relationship with God. Christ came to show us not only that He doesn’t condemn us, but that His way is the better way. He challenges us to ask His forgiveness and then abandon whatever it is that is unloving. He invites us to trust Him that we’ll be happier if we do our best to imitate Him. Part of being a mature Christian is acknowledging our need for God’s mercy and grace to strengthen us against the temptation to sin. We need Him, the Physician, to heal and empower us. 

No matter what we’ve done, Christ welcomes us to Himself. When we believe His promise that we’re worthy of His love and forgiveness, we’ll be strengthened to abandon our old, hurtful ways and follow His way instead. We turn to Him for forgiveness, and then separate ourselves from whatever or whoever has caused us to sin. Confident in His love, we more readily offer kindness and compassion to others so that they, too, become inspired to love and live His way. This is how we build the Kingdom of God.

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” – Mark 2:17

“Lord, thank You for loving, forgiving, and empowering 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. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature, nor do I receive any kind of payment for my writings. I depend on you, the readers, to share my reflections with your friends. Thank you!

You can also find my posts on my Facebook page!

P.S.

Pray for peace at home, in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, 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.