Episode 89 - What a difference a year makes

Every year, we seem to face new challenges. Do we remember to run to the Lord? Do we remember to open the door and let him in? Are we filled with hope because the Lord is faithful?

Transcript

0:00

Paul, Welcome to Catholic money talk, where we talk about all things money and finance, and we try to do it through a lens of being Catholic, where our ultimate goal is to one day be in Heaven with the Lord. I am your host. Paul Scarfone, thank you for being here today. Welcome back to Catholic money talk. Today, I want to talk about hope, particularly when we feel like we're facing just one challenge after another. But before we do that, let's say a prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Heavenly Father. We thank you for this day. We thank you for all the ways you love and bless us, Lord, Lord, we trust that you've got an awesome plan for us. Lord, show us the way in all the different situations that we might find ourselves in. Let us surrender our plan to yours. Lord God, we ask this all in Jesus name amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. So hope, right? What are we going to talk about hope today? Well, how do we experience hope when we're faced with challenge after challenge, right? Am I talking to the right people? Have you ever felt like you just couldn't get a break? We were just at the beach my family for our vacation last week, and one of my little guys, he's five, he's he's in the the ocean, right where the waves are kind of breaking, right there, right at the beach. And he got knocked down by a wave, and then another wave crashed over him. And I'm watching him, and I'm seeing it, and I'm like, okay, he can breathe. Like, is he gonna get up? Is he gonna get up? And get up? And then I saw another wave coming, and he probably wasn't going to be able to stand up on his own, so I reached down, stepped towards him, grabbed his arm, pulled him up so he could catch his breath. Have you ever felt like that? Right? With life circumstances, you get knocked down over and over and over, just wave after wave, and you don't have a moment to catch your breath. And do we feel that God comes to our aid? Does he reach out? Does he grab our arm? Does he help us to stand up and catch our breath? Or do we think he's forgotten about us? Or have we forgotten about him? Have we forgotten that he's right there? A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a friend, and he was asking for prayers and encouragement for a particularly challenging situation that he's going through right now, right he's in the midst of this. And as I started to pray, and I do this a lot, if someone asked me for prayer, they want to have a conversation with me. And I just get a sense that I need to ask the Holy Spirit right now to inspire me with whatever the Lord wants this person to hear, right So, so this friend, he's facing this tough situation. And I just say, as I start praying, I just ask the Holy Spirit inspire me with what you want him to hear, like put the put your words on my lips, Lord. And as we're in our conversation, all of a sudden, I was struck with something, a particular perspective to the situation. And does this ever happen to you? Something starts coming out of your mouth, and you quickly realize, like this, this is good. Like this is so good. It's definitely not from me, right? I'm not that smart. I experienced this all the time, and many times when this is happening, I can quickly identify the Lord is using me. Thank you, Jesus for putting your words on my lips. And most times I start hearing the words that are coming out of my mouth, and I realize they aren't only for the person I'm speaking with, but these are for me. These are words that I need to listen to, and I need to ponder and pray about them. So again, this this situation a few weeks ago. We're talking about this, I pray, and all of a sudden this perspective hits me, and I ask him, I said, What was your prayer a year ago today? And he's like, What do you mean? I said, think back. Like now, July 2024, a year ago, where were you in life? And he thinks for a second, he says, oh, a year ago, I was very worried about one of my children. They had had a life threatening situation. And I said to him, well, think a year past that. So two years ago now, he thinks for a second says, well, two years ago, we were worried about a housing situation. We weren't sure we'd be living, and we needed to find a place to live. And then I said, So are you still praying for the housing situation? Are you still praying for a life threatening situation for your child? He said, No. So I said, why not? I. And he smiled a little bit, he said, because the Lord answered those prayers. So then I asked him to, do you think the Lord will also answer these prayers today? And he said, Yes. And the whole conversation changed, right? What a difference a year makes for all of us. I've experienced this. I can think back last year and the year before and the year before. My prayers have changed, right? So as I was talking to him, the perspective changed from one of fear and of and of uncertainty to one of joy and of hope. And I've also recognized this in my life. Every year there's a new mountain to climb, a new challenge that seems to have come out of nowhere many times, at least, it feels like that sometimes. And I'll get finished with one mountain, and then there's a new a new a bigger one in front of me. It's something, it ha, it always happens, and it's usually just when I don't think I could take anything else, right? But God has a way of strengthening us for the new challenges that are coming towards us, and he always has a plan to get us through it. He's all about that. He doesn't set us up for failure. He sets us up for success. But success is running to him. Recently, I was speaking with another very close friend, and they've been going through a lot challenges on many fronts, relationships, works, financial, spiritual. And I was talking with him, and I asked him permission, if I could remind him of something that I know he knows. I told him, there's a hole in our hearts that longs to be filled. And many people, right. This is for everyone. We all have a hole in our heart that longs to be filled. Many will pursue things of this world to fill it right, relationships, money, career, maybe drugs, alcohol, you know, or something else, right? And sometimes we might have good things. We might have a great spouse, great kids, a good job, plenty of money, but that hole still exists. The only thing that can fill that hole is God's love, and he is standing at the door of our hearts. He's constantly knocking. He doesn't force himself on us. He just stands there and knocks. It's up to us to open the door and let him in. A few months ago, I was in prayer, and I was praying. I had my eyes closed. In my mind, I saw I was standing in a room, and it was an old room with a big wooden door, and I was feeling a lot of pain. I was in fear. I was weeping, and I heard knocking on the door, and in my heart I knew, I knew I needed to open that door, and I tried, but I couldn't, I just couldn't open the door. And I looked down and I saw that the room was filled with boxes, and they the boxes were blocking the door from being open, and these boxes there were labeled. They had all different labels on fear, guilt, shame, regret, pride. And as I started praying for the Lord to come help me move the boxes, they slowly started moving out of the room, and little by little, I was able to open the door, and the light grew and grew through the opening as it so, you know, as the doors opening, and then all of a sudden, it was just filled with the Lord's presence, right? The Lord's presence filled the room, and I was immediately at peace. Immediately I was full of hope and full of joy. There was an excitement in me. And why do I bring the story up? Because we need to be reminded of this often. I need to be reminded of this regularly, because that door, it swings on a hinge, and as much as it's open now it could close again. We need to keep that door open so that the Lord remains with us, that we can be constantly living in His presence. This is the beauty of our Catholic faith, right, the gift of the sacraments, the grace from our baptism, the grace from regularly going to confession, the grace that we receive through receiving the Lord physically in the Eucharist, he constantly comes to us. He constantly gives us grace and strength that we need in every moment. Yes, the moments change right. What a difference a year makes right? The moments change every month. Every year, there's a new set of challenges that remind us of our need for God and. And the quicker we get used to turning to him, the more we exercise our virtues and we run to the Lord, the quicker he's able to help us in our situations, the quicker we experience peace, hope and joy. That's why we read stories of the saints, and they're going through terrible things. They might be be being tortured on a rack or being burnt, and they're singing praises to the Lord in the midst of that terrible, terrible situation. Why? Because they got very good at quickly turning to the Lord in those tough moments. And he comes in and he helps them, and He gives them peace, hope and joy, even when others looking at it, it might not make sense to us. So as I reminded my friend and as I remind myself, I also remind you, no matter what situation you find yourself in today, the Lord has an awesome plan for you. He has a beautiful new day dawning. Just think back how your prayers have changed because he slowly answers them, working all things to the good. I promise you that no matter what you're facing today, the Lord has a plan. His plan is for you to be with Him in Heaven, forever that is happy ever after we will get there, but in the meantime, we get to call out to him when we need him. We get to reach out to him when we get knocked down, wave after wave, we ask him to come help us conquer our fears, to give us strength for the fight. We open that door to our hearts, and we allow Him to fill us with His peace. He fills us with hope and with great joy. I'm going to end with this story about two years ago, two and a half years ago, I was dealing with an incredibly tough situation, and so I stopped at a chapel to pray, and I saw one of my closest friends, one of my dearest friends, was there. So I grabbed him real quick, and I asked him to pray with me. And I told him, Look, I feel exhausted. I feel like I'm on the ropes. And my prayer, I want to be able to see how the Lord is working to fix this situation. My friend looked at me and said, I don't think that's the right prayer. I think the prayer is that you have to trust that the Lord is working. And that hit me hard. Here I am praying that I want to see what the Lord is doing to fix my problem. And my friend quickly reminded me, the prayer is that you can trust that the Lord is working. And as he began to pray over me, he told me, Paul, those ropes, those ropes you think you're on, those aren't ropes. Those are the arms of your heavenly Father. And I closed my eyes and I imagined dealing with the situation I was in, but the God's arms were wrapped around me, and my fear, my panic, oh, I was in a panic, my fear and panic, they melted away. I was overwhelmed with hope and with peace. And when I'm in a new, turbulent situation, I quickly try to go to that moment in my mind, reminding myself that God, no matter what I'm going through, hasn't forgotten about me or abandoned me. He's standing right next to me, ready to pull me up out of the wave when I can't take anymore, I just need to call to him and ask him to come. I need to open the door of my heart and invite Him in, then I will experience His peace. So if you're in the midst of a tough situation, or maybe you have a loved one who's going through the ringer right now, let's take a moment and pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your faithfulness to us. We have confidence in your love and your mercy, and we invite you right now into our hearts, into this new situation, we surrender it to you, Lord, we surrender our desired outcome to you. You know what is best. Your ways are far above our ways. We can't comprehend how beautiful your plan is, Lord, we ask you to shower down your Holy Spirit. Just pour your Holy Spirit upon us. Fill us with your grace, that we can experience your love and your mercy. Fill us with a deep trust in you, that you are working through this, and that we will see, we will soon see the dawn of your new day for us, that you will not leave us. You will not abandon us. Lord, let us feel your arms surrounding us as we walk through this challenge. We ask you to keep the evil one far from us, keep his lies, his fear, his hopelessness, at bay. St Michael, we ask you to defend us in battle. Saint Joseph, terror of demons as you defended the Holy Family, we ask you to intercede to your Son, Jesus, to defend us in this moment. Mary our Mother, please wrap us in the mantle of your love. Intercede to your son for us, we ask all this through the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen you. Well, that's what I have for us today. It was really on my heart to talk about this today and to offer encouragement and a prayer for anyone who might be going through something challenging. There is great hope. Think back in your life to those moments where the Lord shows up. Your prayers have changed because the Lord is faithful. He's constantly working. He wants you to run to him. He wants you to open that door to let him in. So I encourage you to do that. Say, Lord, come into my heart. Lord come into my heart. I invite you in. Well, that's what I have for today, a reminder to run to the Lord, an encouragement to be filled with hope. Again, our Lord has a track record of being faithful. We can count on it. I hope this was helpful. Thank you for joining me today. God bless Thank you for listening to Catholic money talk. I hope you join us again next time, please click Subscribe in your podcast app to get notified of new episodes. God bless you and have a great day. You.