IF YOU DON'T TAKE CARE OF YOUR SOUL, WHO WILL? BY MGL

The book Imitation of Christ reads:“If you are not solicitous for yourself now, who will take care of you later? It will come when you want a day or an hour to make amends, and I don't know if it will be granted to you.” Here Kempis is telling us that we should not wait until our final days to ask for forgiveness and start walking with Christ.“Learn now to die to the world, so that you may then begin to live with Christ. Learn now to despise everything, so that you may then freely go to Christ. Now that you have time, treasure immortal riches. Think nothing but your salvation, and take care only of the things of God.”It is sad to see that people only give their leftovers to God. They prioritize the world first, like their pleasures, activities, or materialistic things. And they give their leftover time and money to God. Why do we do this? When God is the most important person.The Imitation of Christ continues to read:“Win friends now by venerating the saints of God, and imitating their works, so that when you depart from this life you will be received into eternal dwellings.”We recommend that we should have friends at important places because you never know when you will need them. Another piece of wisdom is that it is better to have friends than money. This is true for the world, but also for our spiritual life. The book further reads:“Keep your heart free and lifted up to God, for you have no permanent home here.”Chapter 25: is about the Fervent Amendment of Our Whole Life. It reads: 1. Watch very diligently in the service of God, and think ordinarily why you came, and why you left the world. This book is for monks. So here it invites us to meditate on that we have left the world, but we need to remember why we have left it.“Is it not perhaps in order to live for God, and to be a spiritual man? Run, therefore, with fervor to perfection, Now you will work a little, and then you will find great rest, and even perpetual joy. If you remain faithful and zealous in your work, God will surely be faithful and rich in repaying. Have firm hope that you will gain victory, but it is not good to be sure, because you should not slacken or become proud.”This is true. It does require some work and effort to follow God. But it costs us more when we don’t follow Him. It is harder to carry the black cross of the world compared to carrying the white cross, which is the cross of Christ. One way or another, we have to carry a cross in this world. But the question is: Is the black cross that causes you to have anxiety, jealousy, anger, desperation, and bad things? Or is the white cross that costs us a bit to carry it, but it fills us with peace, serenity, and God? This is what Jesus meant when he said that his cross isn’t heavy. If one day, you feel burdened, go to Jesus and he will heal you. He comes to us whenever we are struggling.