Every first Sunday of the month, a spiritual renewal takes place in the sanctuary of the Precious Blood of Christ in Ludbreg. For the month of January, it was led by Goran Granić, a former professional soccer player and now a coach.
The former coach of Posušje is today an active lay believer, sports coach and author of the book “Eternal glory” who, testifying about his conversion, showed the path he had taken and what he had learned. Through his testimony, he spoke about lies and truths which he recognized in his life and said that the Lord enters human life in two ways, writes Podravski.hr.
Or you do some great thing happensthat’s when you recognize God’s action and follow Him, or some kind of desperate situation, well you cry from your heart and God stepped into that situation. I was so stubborn that I needed both situationsGranić stressed.
First he scored certain football successin order to reach the situation of a player on the bench in ten days. Inside him, he testified, everything changed.
That which is God first meant nothing to me. The fact that I have a wife and children, that I am healthy, that I had a good season meant nothing to me.
All that disappeared only because the praise disappeared, the applause disappeared, the spotlight disappeared.
That image I had about myself, that I am a good believer, that God is in the first place in my life and that He is the cause of that joy and all success, all that fell apart. I saw that actually success in football was my God, said Granic.
He was convinced that the Lord was in the first place in his life, until life situations denied him that belief. Then he realized that he had been living a lie.
God was there, but not as a goalnot as the one my heart yearns for, who will fill the emptiness I feel, not as the one who will fill the meaning of my life, but as a helperpointed out Granić.
When he realized this, he sincerely repented and asked the Lord to truly become the first in his life. In the process, he also realized that the human heart, figuratively speaking, has many rooms that the Lord enters when we call him, but not clean, tidy rooms, but cold, dark, and all kinds of things that the Lord comes to arrange. He also emphasized the importance of the motives for which we do things in life and said that he does not agree with the statement of some that it is not the motive that matters, but what a person does.
Motive is very important. It is important to me for which motive my wife married me, because I am a soccer player, or because she loves me. In the end, that very motive is what will or will not reward you at the end of lifeadded Granić.
He also noticed how people often in their lives they live only one role while neglecting the others. In his example, he lived the role of a football player and subordinated everything to that, instead of living the role of husband, father, son, friend and so on. Each of those roles one is a garden that needs to be cultivatedGranić illustrated vividly, emphasizing that the most important thing is to experience God as a master, i.e. as a father, to serve Him, to be obedient to Him, to seek God’s will.
God has a plan for everyone’s life and every role from husband, father and brother to friend and businessmanpoints out Granić, who encouraged everyone to open all the doors of their heart to God so that He exposes all the lies, and then transforms and restores the individual and then the family.
After the spoken testimony, there is a spiritual renewal continued by praying the rosarywith Holy Mass and Eucharistic adoration, and an invitation was sent from the Sanctuary to everyone for a new spiritual renewal on the first Sunday in February.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Ludbreg Sanctuary)
