Are you about to burst? Do you feel tensions well up, at times beyond what you think you can contain?

It seems like a cycle we all encounter:

The growing, the swelling, the increase -- and then the bursting point.

We are seeing this occur with the economy and we see it also in our own lives.

Pop. Suddenly, it's gone. There is release. There is relief. Suddenly, the Lord comes to the rescue. Sometimes, we're not happy about the way that "pop" comes. It seems bad. It is for our good. It can be through illness. It can be through trauma. It can be through accidents -- or close calls. It can be through losing a job. It can be painful. But it is the Lord saving us from ourselves in ways we don't always understand.

In many cases, we swell because we have held onto something. We have let it collect inside. There is poison. We didn't want to change. We chose to swell with worries. This often causes us to reach the bursting point. We swell with anger.

Often God deals with our swollen selves by pricking the balloon we too often become.

When we boast or gossip, when we have pride, we fill like a blimp with hot air.

The Lord, in His Mercy, will eventually cause that to burst. He will let fresh air in. Pride goes before the fall.

"Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins," says Matthew 9:17, "otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

How are you swollen? Is there negativity welling inside of you? What has become too big for your "skin" to contain?

It is a matter of free will. But then comes the bursting point. And then comes the Lord with a scalpel. Call it spiritual appendicitis: all of us have had it, usually on a regular basis, which we must halt if we want direct entry into Heaven.

What in your life is about to rupture? What is causing your tensions to swell? What is beginning to grow that could reach a crisis point? Do you have "hang-ups"? Are you overly attached to something or someone? Have you let yourself become lonely (with Christ, there is no such thing)?

In a literal way, we see how self-consuming too many of us -- especially in these modern times -- have become. We grow introverted. Everything goes inside. In order to consume a lot of our "selves," we have to be big -- big-headed, or just big, period.

We swell when our egos are too large (when we are what Scripture calls "puffed up") or from emotions like jealousy, resentment, and anger. We swell when we are too "absorptive" -- when we allow the negativity of others to permeate us. We reach a bursting point when we're depressed or anxious in an obsessive way.

Scripture tells us not to worry!

It is nearly a sin.

It is faith in the negative!

And it can grow like a boil within that needs to be lanced.

Tension, tension, tension. It is like toxic air.

That's what the Lord must often do: release the poison that wells within us.

Do we want to keep having that done? Would it not be far less painful to do it ourselves? Better yet, doesn't it make sense to prevent swelling to begin with?

Don't let negatives rub off. Be on total guard that you have no envy. Don't absorb insults. Let them pass by. They are meaningless. The person who insults you will be accountable. You need not be the judge.

Step away from anger.

If such an emotion is already  building in you, ask Christ to help you release it and then don't let it enter again.

Refrain from resenting anyone and you will become "empty" and a vessel for the Holy Spirit. If you are going to burst, do so as in Jeremiah 5:5: ""With one accord, [they] have broken the yoke. And burst the bonds."

Breathe the Holy Spirit in and out, let nothing else build within you (but love), and if you are going to "burst," burst forth with a grace that will transform you and everything around you. Let that be the only thing that collects in your spirit!

Let it be the only thing you exhale.

In such a way can we begin to live Heaven from this earth.

[resources: The God of Miracles and Father DeGrandis's book]

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