By Jonathan Camiolo

 

When something goes wrong I like to fix it.  I like to handle the situation as fast as possible.  I do not like to see issues with solutions that are not being taken care of.  Often as a youth minister I see an issue in someone’s life and I think I know how to fix it.  They may even come to me and share their struggles and the fact that they want things to be different.  Sometimes I might be right on how to deal with it, and I can suggest what I might think work, but it is up to the person to make the changes.  

 

It can be frustrating at times for sure.  Even when we can change something in our lives, we often find it so hard to.  We can be annoyed when the issues in our lives or in the lives of others do not get resolved when the solution seems so possible and available.  Now think about what God must think.  He must look down from heaven and look at all of our lives and just wish He could fix them for us.  All of us have struggles and areas that need changing, and He would love to help.  He does through grace and the wisdom He has left behind in His teachings but He does not control us.  He has patience with us.

 

The first reading says, “But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.”  Later it goes on to say, “Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little.”  God has to overlook some of our wrongs and corrects us a little at a time, waiting for us to finally make the changes we need to make.  He offers us mercy with sometimes a bit of correction.  He is a compassionate God.  The gospel is the story of Zacchaeus and Jesus shows that compassion and patience with him.  Jesus treats him with love but does offer some correction. Zacchaeus decides to change.

 

Are you patient with others?  Do you find the need to fix everyone else’s problems all of the time?  Are you compassionate for other people’s weaknesses?  Are you judgmental, mean or impatient?  Can you offer and take correction a little at a time?  That’s the way God treats us and I can only imagine that is the way we are to treat each other.  Think. Pray. Decide. Change.  

 

You are loved!  Pray for me this week and I will pray for you…promise!