Your Personalized Path To Heaven

    Us Catholics believe that Christ died for us and that we have the goal of getting to Heaven. But when it comes to Heaven, the path to get there is a little bit different for each of us. For some people it's as if they just pop up there without any struggles, for others it seems their entire life is one tragedy after the next. Where's the consistency, God?!?!?!
    The consistency is that God knows you, loves you, and wants you in Heaven with him. But we all struggle with certain virtues in our lives. Whether it's patience, prudence, justice, fortitude, or courage, the lack of any of these shows that we are not ready for Heaven. So God, wants to change that. He wants us to be as "Heaven Ready" as possible as we near the end of our earthly life. So he gives us opportunities to work on them. An example of this is when you receive bad grades, then your parents ground you from TV and friends for two weeks. It takes away those distractions allowing you to focus on homework (prudence).
    In short, each of us has a different path to get to Heaven. And each one is filled with different challenges allowing us to grow in virtue. Just because there are many paths does not mean the road is easy. It means that God personalized your road to best fit your abilities.

Beyond The Statistics

    "What's my purpose in life?" Have you ever asked yourself that? It sounds like a tough question, but It's not. The answer is extremely simple. The purpose of your life is to know, love, and serve the Lord. Easier said than done.

    Everyone knows Jesus, right? Not really. People know Jesus like I know Steve Yzerman. He played for the Wings, scored 692 goals, won 3 stanley cups, and wore number 19. But I couldn't honestly say that I know Stevie. Most of us know Christ in the same way. He was born of a virgin, healed a few blind people, and died on a cross...oh, and rose from the dead. Christ wants you to be as comfortable with him and share your successes, struggles, and everything in between.
    Think of one of your closest friends. How did you become so close? It didn't happen right away, but over months or perhaps years of confining in each other, a trust grew. A relationship with God is no different. Start small by sharing a few things. Then as time goes on, give God more. Eventually you realize that the more you give to God, the more rewarding life becomes. Conversion happens when you realize that God does a better job at controlling your life than you do and you sign your life over to God. When this is done, that's when your life gets exciting. Just look at past Saints who gave their life to God. Just look at the amazing lives of John Paul the Great, Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Catherine, St. Nick, etc. All these men and women had legendary lives as they served the Lord.
    Are you ready to have a personal relationship with Christ?

The God Shaped Hole

    We all have a hole in our hearts that we try to fill. We try to fill it with events, food, gossip, lies, TV, YouTube, money, etc, but it never gets filled. And that causes us to have anxiety and go into freakout mode. "Maybe if I was as pretty as her, or as popular as him. Or I wish more exciting things happened to me!" These thoughts puts us into a heavy tailspin headed right towards Depressionville.

    We try to fill our hearts with these superficial things that gives us happiness for a moment, but ultimately leaves us empty inside. But wait, there's good news!!! The thing that can fill the hole in our hearts doesn't cost a thing and can be found everywhere. That one thing is God. How could it be anything else? God designed you with a specific purpose. When you allow God into your life, you are able to hear his plans for you. This level of connection between Creator and creation is like playing a video game with all the cheat codes and secrete passages given to you at the right times.

    What we struggle with is listening to God. God has a tendency to give directions like "turn here" with very little warning. If you're like me, you like to have a little warning. We want God to tell us after every little step "yup, keep going." That is why we fill this God shaped whole with superficial things, because we get nervous. If you pray regularly and strive to live a Christian life, when something different is supposed to happen in your life, God will tell you. It could be like a tap on the shoulder or a 2 by 4 across the face, but God will definitely get that message to you.