{"id":8415,"date":"2022-02-13T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=8415"},"modified":"2022-02-09T10:53:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T15:53:52","slug":"no-room-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/no-room-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"No Room For God!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe title=\"No Room For God! 2\/13\/22\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=8xxft-11a15a3-pb&#038;from=pb6admin&#038;share=1&#038;download=1&#038;rtl=0&#038;fonts=Arial&#038;skin=1&#038;font-color=&#038;btn-skin=7\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There is a story about&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>a man&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>who sought out a spiritual guide for advice.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The guide welcomed the man and proceeded to pour him a cup of coffee. When the cup overflowed, the spiritual guide kept pouring. When the saucer spilled over with coffee, the guide kept pouring. When the hot coffee started stinging the man\u2019s fingers, he complained loudly,&nbsp;<strong>\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spiritual guide calmly replied,&nbsp;<strong><em>\u201cI\u2019m teaching you a lesson. You come to me seeking spiritual fulfillment, but you are already full. There is simply no room for anything else. Go home and empty yourself. Then come back with a heart that has room for God.\u201c<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus says to us in today\u2019s Gospel:\u00a0<strong><em>\u201cWoe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong> (Luke 6:17, 20-26).\u00a0Jesus is telling us that we are full of\u00a0<strong>OURSELVES<\/strong>, our thoughts, our needs, our desires and our fantasies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I find it revealing to consider the evolution of magazine titles during my lifetime. Growing up I read\u00a0<strong>LIFE<\/strong> magazine. Then came\u00a0<strong>LOOK<\/strong> and later <strong>PEOPLE<\/strong> magazine. Then came\u00a0<strong>US<\/strong> magazine. Then a magazine called\u00a0<strong>SELF<\/strong> came along where this month you can find 35 fun things to do on Valentine\u2019s Day, that include enjoying a smash session at a rage room. I\u2019m not into smashing sessions, but I\u00a0do\u00a0admit that all too often I am so full of myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jesus is telling us that his followers must be different. His followers must live by a different drumbeat. We who call ourselves Christians must have different values and attitudes than many of the people around us. We need to empty our hearts and make room for God.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You probably remember Ed Bradley, the correspondent for\u00a0<strong><em>60 Minutes<\/em><\/strong> for 26 years. Born in 1941, Ed Bradley died in 2006. His parents divorced when he was two years old.\u00a0When he was nine, his mother enrolled him in the Holy Providence School, an all-black Catholic boarding school run by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sisters_of_the_Blessed_Sacrament\">Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cornwells_Heights,_Pennsylvania\">Cornwells Heights, Pennsylvania<\/a>. He later attended\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Saint_Charles_Academy\">Mount Saint Charles Academy<\/a>, in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Woonsocket,_Rhode_Island\">Woonsocket, Rhode Island<\/a>. He graduated in 1959 from Saint Thomas More Catholic Boys High School in West Philadelphia and then another historically black school, Cheyney State College in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cheyney,_Pennsylvania\">Cheyney, Pennsylvania<\/a>, graduating in 1964 with a degree in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>One of the most intriguing segments Ed Bradley ever did for\u00a0<strong>60 Minutes<\/strong> was about a family with a religiously devout mother in her 30\u2019s, an older and painfully shy father and their ten-year old daughter. Their ten-year old daughter was bound to a wheelchair by spina bifida.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Every year the family made a pilgrimage to Lourdes in France where healings occur. (Full disclosure: I was cured of my severe right leg sciatic pain at Lourdes in 2000).&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Ed Bradley was interviewing the family about their pilgrimages in his usual sophisticated way. He kept trying to give the family a hard time for being so gullible, spending all that money every year thinking that their ten-year old daughter would be cured of her spina bifida at Lourdes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At one point Bradley turned to the little girl and asked:\u00a0<strong><em>\u201cWhen you pray, what do you pray for?\u201d<\/em><\/strong>  She replied,\u00a0<strong><em>\u201cI pray that my father won\u2019t be so shy. It makes him very lonely!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>That response stopped Bradley cold for a few seconds. But being Ed Bradley, he pressed on, questioning the mother why they spend thousands of dollars every year going to Lourdes and still they have no miracle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mother then looked down at her daughter, her face beaming with love, and answered:&nbsp;<strong><em>\u201cOh, Mr. Bradley, you just don\u2019t get it. WE HAVE OUR MIRACLE!\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ed Bradley didn\u2019t get it. His mindset was that the only miracle worth noticing, was the one that fit HIS definition \u2013 that their precious girl would get up and walk.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>On November 9, 2006, when I heard that Ed Bradley had died at the age of 65, I wondered if in eternity he saw the miracle of the girl\u2019s growing love for her father and a family tightly held together by their faith in Someone and Something greater than the three of them. I bet that Ed Bradley now sees that God does not work in the ways that we expect, because God\u2019s love breaks the bounds of our narrow imagination.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>While here on earth, Ed Bradley was like the rest of us \u2013 we are so full of OURSELVES, that our hearts have no room for God, and we are unable to see what God is doing in our own lives and in our world today. And on days like today we are filled with the Super Bowl, the game and all of its commercials, to be enjoyed for sure, but it is only a distraction.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How often\u00a0are\u00a0<strong>YOU<\/strong> filled with <strong>YOURSELF,\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>your<\/strong> thoughts,\u00a0<strong>your<\/strong> needs,\u00a0<strong>your<\/strong> desires and\u00a0<strong>your<\/strong> fantasies that\u00a0<strong>YOU<\/strong> have no room for God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WHEN YOU LET GO, SOMETHING MAGICAL HAPPENS! YOU GIVE GOD ROOM TO WORK IN YOUR HEART!!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a story about&nbsp;a man&nbsp;who sought out a spiritual guide for advice.&nbsp; The guide welcomed the man and proceeded to pour him a cup of coffee. When the cup overflowed, the spiritual guide kept pouring. When the saucer spilled over with coffee, the guide kept pouring. When the hot coffee started stinging the man\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair.png",249,166,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair-140x100.png",140,100,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mom-and-Girl-in-Wheelchair-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/weekly-messages\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Weekly Messages<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"There is a story about&nbsp;a man&nbsp;who sought out a spiritual guide for advice.&nbsp; The guide welcomed the man and proceeded to pour him a cup of coffee. When the cup overflowed, the spiritual guide kept pouring. When the saucer spilled over with coffee, the guide kept pouring. When the hot coffee started stinging the man\u2019s&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8418,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8415\/revisions\/8418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}