We Are Bankrupt Without God

The title words were said by the priest this morning at the EWTN mass.  The mass reminded me of Lent, and what God has shown me about my life.

The first Scripture reading this morning was from Genesis, and the covenant God made with Noah.  God said He would never again wipe out the earth’s creatures with a flood.  He said when see the dark clouds, look and see the arc of My covenant --- a rainbow --- in the sky.

When I heard those words from Genesis, I recalled a posting I wrote in mid-2016, called The World had changed (https://do-not-be-anxious.blogspot.com/2016/07/and-when-i-awoke-world-had-changed.html )     .  The post started with me seeing dark clouds everywhere in the sky, yet an amazingly huge rainbow was in the middle of all the clouds.  It was so amazing I drove to a friend’s home and took her outside to see.  Then we watched a movie about the sexual sins of priests.  Finally, the post ended with me having a strong feeling of sadness, sadness which I knew was a sadness God felt with the world --- now.  And I didn’t know what to do, but pray.

I didn’t relate the rainbow at that post’s start with the sadness of God I felt at the end.  The Scripture reading this morning reminded me that in Noah’s time God also felt a great sadness with the world, and send a flood to wipe all the sin-filled world.  All died.  But He made a covenant with Noah afterwards that He would never purify the world with a flood again.

But He is sad again because of the sins everywhere in the world.

Lent is a time for our conversion, to renounce sin in our lives which Jesus died for, and to change our lives.  Jesus’ death gives us this opportunity to console a sad God.

Lent s a time for us to choose to change our lives.  It would be only a small change in the huge world, our single life, but God sees, and it will console Him --- and He will remember His covenant with Noah.

The priest this morning in his sermon said (you can listen at 12:20 and 7:20 today on ESPN) we should have a serious conversation with the Lord this Lent about the state of our soul.  We need to ask: “Lord, how do You see my soul?”  Pray, spend time with God, and talk to Him this Lent.  It is a time to see ourselves as God sees us, “Lord, what does my life look like to You?  Does it resemble Yours?”  The answer may frighten us, the dark clouds God sees us through, seeing what needs to be changed, and to repent.

Through His death Jesus gave us a reason to change --- eternal life, not temporary pleasure, and to recognize that there is a God who loves us, and I am not Him.  As I live entranced by the internet and focused on my personal desires in this world, I am not imitating Him, and He grieves with my not knowing Him and His love.  His word, meditated upon this Lent, will show us His rainbow, and help make the dark clouds of our lives, and His, go away.

We are bankrupt without God, even if we should have all the money in the world.