Today at Mass, our pastor spoke out against the recent Health and Human Services decision on Obama-Care that will require all insurance providers to cover birth control and abortion. While he hit on important points like being active by letting our representatives know what we think about this decision, he also talked about the options the church has. First off, the church could go along with this, but that likely won't happen. Secondly, the church and affiliated organizations could cut health care to their employees, but again, that's not right for the employees. Third, if forced to, the American Bishops could refuse to comply, and then refuse to pay fines, and force the US Government to arrest them. How would that play on the 24 hour news cycle...a bunch of Catholic Bishops being marched off to jail for listening to their conscience and following the precepts of their faith? I can't imagine that there is any way the media could spin it so that the Obama administration wins that one.
But, prior to this President, I couldn't imagine living in a country where the Ruling Regime would force this kind of thing on us. As our Pastor said, "For evil to happen, good people must do nothing", and that was the main take away of the entire homily. For too long in this country, we've sat idly by while we let evil happen around us. When are we going to stop and say that we've had enough?!!!
Well, I for one, have had enough. I'm not going to apologize for my beliefs, and I'm not going to apologize for trying to teach my kids those beliefs. We all need to stand up and say that we've had enough. Start small...quit participating in entertainment that is unnecessarily degrading to a particular group of people. Spend time with your kids or your family. Teach your kids why abortion is wrong. Teach your kids why the Obama regime and a huge central government is wrong. Be good parents or grandparents. Frankly, it might be too late for our generation, but it's not too late for our kids. If we teach them to know right from wrong, there might be hope for the future. If we fail now, we are doomed to more President's like Obama, and probably worse.
Finally, get out there in 2012 and get Obama and his cronies voted out of office. Don't force the US Catholic Bishops to have to face jail time to make this point. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure most of them would be willing to endure jail time to stop this evil from happening, but let's try to stop it before that becomes necessary. Stop this the only way you can, with your vote! The primary mission of 2012 has to be to ensure that Barack Obama is a one term President. If we are successful in ousting President Obama, the next President's first act should be to sign an executive order stopping Obama-Care and all it's evil from becoming law. Let's make it happen!
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Why So Unhappy?
Tiger Woods made his much anticipated return to the PGA Tour today, shooting a two over par 73 at the Frys.com open, a Fall Finish event. Normally, Tiger doesn't play in the Fall Finish events, but due to injuries and poor play, he added this event to get is game in better shape before the President's Cup.
After his round, he said that he is "Not Happy" with his round. Tiger is never happy these days. In fact, he's generally really miserable. I can't say that I blame him...he screwed up his marriage, his health has been a wreck and his golf game resembles mine more and more every day.
But, at the same time, I can say that I blame him. Tiger has lead a pretty charmed life. He was the best golfer on the planet for the better part of 15 years. He's won over 70 tournaments and 14 majors. He's got 2 kids. He's become the person he dreamed of being growing up. So, why isn't it he happy?
Well, because there's more to life than being a great golfer. I tend to think that Tiger got to the top and thought, "this is all there is?" So then he tried to fill his life with other things, and it never got better. That happens to us all when we achieve something we really want...in the end, accomplishments of this world always disappoint. So then, like Tiger, we try to fill our lives with other things, looking for the one thing that will make us truly happy.
Maybe Tiger, and the rest of us, need to spend less time looking for things of this world to make us happy and more time looking for Jesus Christ. True happiness can only come through living a truly Christian life. Personally, I struggle with this every day. But I have realized that I'm a much happier person when I quit trying to find things in this world to make me happy and realize that I should be happy with the many blessing God has already given me...such as a great wife and 2 wonderful boys. Don't get me wrong, I still fail more often than I succeed, and I'm still somewhat convinced that a pickup will make me happy, but that's a problem for another day.
I wonder if Tiger will ever realize Who the true source of happiness really is?
After his round, he said that he is "Not Happy" with his round. Tiger is never happy these days. In fact, he's generally really miserable. I can't say that I blame him...he screwed up his marriage, his health has been a wreck and his golf game resembles mine more and more every day.
But, at the same time, I can say that I blame him. Tiger has lead a pretty charmed life. He was the best golfer on the planet for the better part of 15 years. He's won over 70 tournaments and 14 majors. He's got 2 kids. He's become the person he dreamed of being growing up. So, why isn't it he happy?
Well, because there's more to life than being a great golfer. I tend to think that Tiger got to the top and thought, "this is all there is?" So then he tried to fill his life with other things, and it never got better. That happens to us all when we achieve something we really want...in the end, accomplishments of this world always disappoint. So then, like Tiger, we try to fill our lives with other things, looking for the one thing that will make us truly happy.
Maybe Tiger, and the rest of us, need to spend less time looking for things of this world to make us happy and more time looking for Jesus Christ. True happiness can only come through living a truly Christian life. Personally, I struggle with this every day. But I have realized that I'm a much happier person when I quit trying to find things in this world to make me happy and realize that I should be happy with the many blessing God has already given me...such as a great wife and 2 wonderful boys. Don't get me wrong, I still fail more often than I succeed, and I'm still somewhat convinced that a pickup will make me happy, but that's a problem for another day.
I wonder if Tiger will ever realize Who the true source of happiness really is?
Saturday, September 17, 2011
If You Love Me....
Remember back during the 2008 election when we Conservatives were saying that Barack Obama has a Messiah Complex? Well, maybe not all Conservatives, but definitely Rush Limbaugh, and me, to name 2 prominent Conservatives. Personally, I still believe that, and this week, President Obama gave me further confirmation that I'm correct on this one.
During a speech in North Carolina, President Obama, presumably off the teleprompter, said "If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill!" If the teleprompter told him to say that, I question whether the teleprompter is doing his job. This statement was made in reference to Obama's notional jobs bill.
How does this prove that Obama has a Messiah complex? Well, to borrow from Nuke, let's look at scripture. In John 21:15-19 we have the famous exchange when Jesus asks Peter 3 times if Peter loves Him. After each time Peter professes that he loves Jesus, Jesus gives Peter a command. For another example, let's go back to John 14:15, where we hear Jesus say "If you love Me, you will keep My Commandments."
In the light of what I just cited above, what Obama said does sound like an attempt to sound Messiah-like, doesn't it? Again Barack Obama is making it all about himself, rather than about the people in this country who are out of work. Rather than making some emotive statement like that, Obama should try to lead and actually present something that makes sense for creating jobs and growing the economy. But, I truly believe he doesn't have the faintest idea of how to do that.
To those who are super cynical who are thinking right now, "Why is it ok for Jesus to say what He said? Isn't He doing the same thing Obama is doing?", I would answer that the point is that it is all about Jesus. It's an entirely different thing...altogether. As Christians, we profess that Jesus is #1 in our life, and as such, when He says what He said in John 14 and John 21, we need to do what he asks.
That's all I have to say about that.
During a speech in North Carolina, President Obama, presumably off the teleprompter, said "If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill!" If the teleprompter told him to say that, I question whether the teleprompter is doing his job. This statement was made in reference to Obama's notional jobs bill.
How does this prove that Obama has a Messiah complex? Well, to borrow from Nuke, let's look at scripture. In John 21:15-19 we have the famous exchange when Jesus asks Peter 3 times if Peter loves Him. After each time Peter professes that he loves Jesus, Jesus gives Peter a command. For another example, let's go back to John 14:15, where we hear Jesus say "If you love Me, you will keep My Commandments."
In the light of what I just cited above, what Obama said does sound like an attempt to sound Messiah-like, doesn't it? Again Barack Obama is making it all about himself, rather than about the people in this country who are out of work. Rather than making some emotive statement like that, Obama should try to lead and actually present something that makes sense for creating jobs and growing the economy. But, I truly believe he doesn't have the faintest idea of how to do that.
To those who are super cynical who are thinking right now, "Why is it ok for Jesus to say what He said? Isn't He doing the same thing Obama is doing?", I would answer that the point is that it is all about Jesus. It's an entirely different thing...altogether. As Christians, we profess that Jesus is #1 in our life, and as such, when He says what He said in John 14 and John 21, we need to do what he asks.
That's all I have to say about that.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Why Does the Media Care So Much?
So, it's May 24th, and we're all still here. The world did not end on May 21st, as predicted by Harold Camping and his small "Christian" group. I put Christian in quotes there, because it is obviously not a Christian perspective to believe one can know the date of the second coming. In fact, Matthew and Luke are pretty clear about this:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” – Matthew 24:35-36
“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” – Luke 12:40
Mark Hart writes an interesting post on a "Catholic Perspective" on the end of the world if you want to read more. That's not actually the reason I'm writing this blog. I'm writing this because of a conversation I had with Nuke today. It was brief...we do actually work.
Anyway, Nuke was lamenting the fact that the mainstream media latched on to this one "out there" guy and used it to make all Christians look bad. I responded by saying that the media wants to tear down Christianity because Christians have too much power in this country. To which Nuke responded that this was because "deep down, they know we are right."
I initially objected to this, stating that the mainstream media follows the gospel according to Marx, but Nuke persisted, sending some scripture my way and using an example from his own life. After thinking about this, and reading the scripture Nuke sent my way, I have to agree he's right. Sorry, I can't remember the scripture he sent to me...perhaps he'll comment with the verses. And Marx was just my joke...the media has actually accepted relativism as their "truth." My definition of relativism is that whatever you have as morals is "right for you" and if someone else has a different set of morals, that's "right for them." Basically, the truth is what you make of it.
The mainstream media does know, in the deepest recesses of their hearts, that Christians are right...we have the truth and it scares those in the mainstream media. They have accepted the truth of relativism with their minds, but their hearts don't believe it. Deep down, they know that what is right and what is wrong is not relative, but that there are indeed absolute truths in this world. However, in their minds, they don't want this to be true, so any chance they get to lash out against Christians and against God they take it in an effort to change the truth. But, the truth is the truth and nothing the mainstream media does will change that.
All we as Christians can do is pray for those in the mainstream media who would see us destroyed, and live our lives in a way that makes us different from what the world tells us we should be. We need to be living the lives Christ taught us to live. We don't need to "lash out" at the media. In this instance, we need to turn the other cheek and remain confident in what we know to be true...that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what the world or the mainstream media says about us...all that matters is what Jesus says about us when He comes again.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” – Matthew 24:35-36
“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” – Luke 12:40
Mark Hart writes an interesting post on a "Catholic Perspective" on the end of the world if you want to read more. That's not actually the reason I'm writing this blog. I'm writing this because of a conversation I had with Nuke today. It was brief...we do actually work.
Anyway, Nuke was lamenting the fact that the mainstream media latched on to this one "out there" guy and used it to make all Christians look bad. I responded by saying that the media wants to tear down Christianity because Christians have too much power in this country. To which Nuke responded that this was because "deep down, they know we are right."
I initially objected to this, stating that the mainstream media follows the gospel according to Marx, but Nuke persisted, sending some scripture my way and using an example from his own life. After thinking about this, and reading the scripture Nuke sent my way, I have to agree he's right. Sorry, I can't remember the scripture he sent to me...perhaps he'll comment with the verses. And Marx was just my joke...the media has actually accepted relativism as their "truth." My definition of relativism is that whatever you have as morals is "right for you" and if someone else has a different set of morals, that's "right for them." Basically, the truth is what you make of it.
The mainstream media does know, in the deepest recesses of their hearts, that Christians are right...we have the truth and it scares those in the mainstream media. They have accepted the truth of relativism with their minds, but their hearts don't believe it. Deep down, they know that what is right and what is wrong is not relative, but that there are indeed absolute truths in this world. However, in their minds, they don't want this to be true, so any chance they get to lash out against Christians and against God they take it in an effort to change the truth. But, the truth is the truth and nothing the mainstream media does will change that.
All we as Christians can do is pray for those in the mainstream media who would see us destroyed, and live our lives in a way that makes us different from what the world tells us we should be. We need to be living the lives Christ taught us to live. We don't need to "lash out" at the media. In this instance, we need to turn the other cheek and remain confident in what we know to be true...that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what the world or the mainstream media says about us...all that matters is what Jesus says about us when He comes again.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Book Review: "Be a Man!"
Father Larry Richards' book, "Be a Man!: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be" was the handout at this year's Catholic Men's Conference for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Fr. Richards is the Keynote Speaker at the 2012 conference, and if his book is any indication, he is going to let us men have it!"Be a Man" is a very challenging read. All throughout the book Fr. Richards uses very straightforward language to get the reader to face the fact that he is most likely not living the life that God intended him to be living. From a man's relationship to Jesus, to his role as spiritual leader of the family, to his duty to change the world, "Be a Man" covers it all.
I really enjoyed this book and was challenged by it. Fr. Richards starts off the book by telling us that we're all going to die...it ends the same way for all of us. When we die, we have 2 options for eternity, and the good news is, we get to choose where we spend it (unless you believe in Predestination, but that's a topic for Nuke's blog, not mine). The problem is, too many men are leading lives that indicate that they are choosing the wrong option.
Fr. Richards makes the case for Jesus being the ultimate man, and then spends the rest of the book providing ways to live out the life God intends for you. Each chapter focuses on a new area to work on, and contains practical tips. Some of the tips are very challenging, such as devoting 1 hour every day for the rest of your life to prayer...I find that one very challenging, but one that I'm also going to pray that I can someday commit to.
At the end of each chapter, there are study questions, so I think this would be a great book for men's groups looking for something to study. I highly recommend this book for all men, not just Catholic men. I think it has the potential to change your life. I look forward to hearing Fr. Richards speak more on the topics in "Be a Man!" and next year's conference.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Cold Turkey
A little over 2 weeks ago, I quit cold turkey on listening to Rush Limbaugh, or any conservative talk radio. Don't mistake this action. I am still a staunch conservative thinker and a Rush Limbaugh fan, however, I found that I could not listen to Rush without 1) Getting Angry and 2) Thinking Ill of Democrats, and especially our President.
Why is this a problem? Well, in taking my faith seriously, I've been hit over the head with the fact that we are all God's children, and Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means that even Democrats are loved by God and thus should be loved by me. I wasn't able to do that very well when listening to Rush Limbaugh, because I found myself thinking horrible things about Democrats and Barack Obama. So, I decided to cut that out of my life for a while and see what happened.
Well, two weeks in, I can report that I'm a happier person. I'm still staying somewhat informed by watching my local news and listening to AP radio news and reading the Internet, but I'm also staying away from the spin, as much as possible. See, while I realize that the Republicans aren't always right, I was treating politics as a "sporting event" in which my side needed to win, even if they were wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, I still believe my side is right 99% of the time, but by not listening to Rush, I can more easily discern that 1% of wrongness.
The other thing I've realized is that I've been able to have better relationships with the Democrats in my life. I'm not always ready to pounce on them with the latest issue of the day in the interest of "winning." And now, when we do talk politics, I think I might be more persuasive because I don't just sound like I'm regurgitating Rush.
So, for now I'm going to continue this experiment of keeping my life a no spin zone. I do miss the entertainment value of Rush Limbaugh, but to be the type of person God wants me to be, I have to do without that form of entertainment at this point in my life.
Why is this a problem? Well, in taking my faith seriously, I've been hit over the head with the fact that we are all God's children, and Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means that even Democrats are loved by God and thus should be loved by me. I wasn't able to do that very well when listening to Rush Limbaugh, because I found myself thinking horrible things about Democrats and Barack Obama. So, I decided to cut that out of my life for a while and see what happened.
Well, two weeks in, I can report that I'm a happier person. I'm still staying somewhat informed by watching my local news and listening to AP radio news and reading the Internet, but I'm also staying away from the spin, as much as possible. See, while I realize that the Republicans aren't always right, I was treating politics as a "sporting event" in which my side needed to win, even if they were wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, I still believe my side is right 99% of the time, but by not listening to Rush, I can more easily discern that 1% of wrongness.
The other thing I've realized is that I've been able to have better relationships with the Democrats in my life. I'm not always ready to pounce on them with the latest issue of the day in the interest of "winning." And now, when we do talk politics, I think I might be more persuasive because I don't just sound like I'm regurgitating Rush.
So, for now I'm going to continue this experiment of keeping my life a no spin zone. I do miss the entertainment value of Rush Limbaugh, but to be the type of person God wants me to be, I have to do without that form of entertainment at this point in my life.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Holy Week
I was sitting here on Good Friday evening, debating whether I should blog about movies or Holy Week. I settled on Holy Week, which I think was the right thing to do. I've got an excellent Top 5 movie list coming up, and a couple of movie reviews.
As of this Easter, I will have been a Catholic for 8 years. Each year, Lent and Holy Week have become more important to me, I enjoy them more each year and I feel like I grow in my faith more each year. This year has been especially good, and it will culminate with the Easter Vigil tomorrow night.
I was explaining the Easter Vigil to a non-denominational friend of mine. I was going on about how beautiful it is, with the symbolism, the incense, the chanting, the transition from darkness to light that signals the Resurrection of Jesus, and this friend said that stuff just wasn't that exciting to them (or something like that). Personally, I love the symbolism all throughout Lent, and especially now during the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil). The holiness, symbolism and ceremony of the Catholic Holy Week helps me feel a closeness to God that grows every year.
Last night, our family went to Holy Thursday Mass, where we celebrated Jesus instituting the Eucharist (communion). At Holy Thursday Mass, there is also foot washing, to follow Jesus' example at the Last Supper. I didn't participate in foot washing, and neither did my wife, but both of our boys did. In fact, my older son washed my younger son's feet...I have to admit, I got a little choked up. I was very proud of him.
Today was the Veneration of the Cross service. I had never been to this service before. I definitely want to go again. It was very new to me, so I'm sure I missed something. I enjoyed the solemn beauty of this service, and was really able to reflect on the Christ's Passion and see that it was the ultimate act of love in a different way than I had previously experienced. And, tomorrow night at 8:30 pm, we will go to the Easter Vigil, which I just love.
This is just such a terrific week. It's wonderful to see so many of my fellow Parishioners attending all 3 masses of the Triduum, making the time to recognize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and what that sacrifice really meant for all of us. And then we wrap it all up with Easter, celebrating His Resurrection 2000 years ago. I can't really describe what I'm feeling, and I'm not overly good at these "reflection" posts, so I'm just going to stop. I pray that all of you are having a fulfilling Holy Week and are looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
As of this Easter, I will have been a Catholic for 8 years. Each year, Lent and Holy Week have become more important to me, I enjoy them more each year and I feel like I grow in my faith more each year. This year has been especially good, and it will culminate with the Easter Vigil tomorrow night.
I was explaining the Easter Vigil to a non-denominational friend of mine. I was going on about how beautiful it is, with the symbolism, the incense, the chanting, the transition from darkness to light that signals the Resurrection of Jesus, and this friend said that stuff just wasn't that exciting to them (or something like that). Personally, I love the symbolism all throughout Lent, and especially now during the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil). The holiness, symbolism and ceremony of the Catholic Holy Week helps me feel a closeness to God that grows every year.
Last night, our family went to Holy Thursday Mass, where we celebrated Jesus instituting the Eucharist (communion). At Holy Thursday Mass, there is also foot washing, to follow Jesus' example at the Last Supper. I didn't participate in foot washing, and neither did my wife, but both of our boys did. In fact, my older son washed my younger son's feet...I have to admit, I got a little choked up. I was very proud of him.
Today was the Veneration of the Cross service. I had never been to this service before. I definitely want to go again. It was very new to me, so I'm sure I missed something. I enjoyed the solemn beauty of this service, and was really able to reflect on the Christ's Passion and see that it was the ultimate act of love in a different way than I had previously experienced. And, tomorrow night at 8:30 pm, we will go to the Easter Vigil, which I just love.
This is just such a terrific week. It's wonderful to see so many of my fellow Parishioners attending all 3 masses of the Triduum, making the time to recognize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and what that sacrifice really meant for all of us. And then we wrap it all up with Easter, celebrating His Resurrection 2000 years ago. I can't really describe what I'm feeling, and I'm not overly good at these "reflection" posts, so I'm just going to stop. I pray that all of you are having a fulfilling Holy Week and are looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
A Change in Direction
Today was the 15th Annual Catholic Men's Conference of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. This is my 6th year of attendance. I am so thankful to God that the Diocese I live in has an event like this every year. It's such an uplifting experience and I look forward to it every year.
I learned many things today, but two things stick out. The first is from the Keynote Speaker, Curtis Martin. The theme of the afternoon keynote was that we Catholic Christians (and all Christians in general) need to have a Christ-centered world view. The second theme that sticks out comes from Deacon Sean Smith, who gave a presentation on Proclaiming the Gospel in a Digital Age. If you read the post, you'll see that Sean pointed us to a message from Pope Benedict addressing the use of new technologies in proclaiming the gospel. The short of it is that we should use the technology today to further the Kingdom of God...everything else is just for fun or a time waster. Fun doesn't have to be a bad thing, but our end must not be fun. As Curtis Martin hit on in the morning keynote, fun is comfort, and we are not made for comfort, we are made for greatness. Ok, I guess that is three things that stuck out for me.
So, between Curtis Martin and Deacon Sean, I felt a bit convicted about my blog. While the original purpose of this blog was a man diary started out of the frustration of the 2008 Presidential Election, I feel like it needs to be more now, I'm being called to make it more. I've been trying to change my blogging ways recently. As some of you may have noticed, I've quit blogging about politics, or at least slowed way down. As I've been spending more time on my faith, the political back and forth has meant less and less to me. Additionally, even though I do not agree with our President on anything other than Golf is really fun, it doesn't help anybody if I waste my time ripping on the President on this blog. From today on, I plan to keep my political blogs to a minimum, and when I do comment politically, I plan to look at the political issues of the day from a Christ-centered world view, rather than a Republican point of view. After all, I'm a Christian first and that's how I should be looking at these things.
I don't plan to stop doing movie reviews, book reviews, posting recipes or talking about sports. After all, fun is ok, as long as fun doesn't become a god. Remember, we aren't made for comfort (or fun), we are made for greatness. I am, going to make an effort in all my blogs, to take a Christ-centered world view. For example, if a movie is wholly immoral, I'm going to make sure that is included in my review, so my Christian friends can make appropriate decisions.
I pray that all my friends who currently read my blog will continue to read this blog, and hopefully get a little more out of it going forward. I feel that I've moved beyond the need for a man diary, and really want to get into some more in depth sharing with my friends on this blog. But, for those who worry that it'll lose it's random charm, don't worry, it's still my random ramblings because I think I have undiagnosed A.D.D., so random thing pop my head all the time, and some of those things continue to be blog worthy.
I learned many things today, but two things stick out. The first is from the Keynote Speaker, Curtis Martin. The theme of the afternoon keynote was that we Catholic Christians (and all Christians in general) need to have a Christ-centered world view. The second theme that sticks out comes from Deacon Sean Smith, who gave a presentation on Proclaiming the Gospel in a Digital Age. If you read the post, you'll see that Sean pointed us to a message from Pope Benedict addressing the use of new technologies in proclaiming the gospel. The short of it is that we should use the technology today to further the Kingdom of God...everything else is just for fun or a time waster. Fun doesn't have to be a bad thing, but our end must not be fun. As Curtis Martin hit on in the morning keynote, fun is comfort, and we are not made for comfort, we are made for greatness. Ok, I guess that is three things that stuck out for me.
So, between Curtis Martin and Deacon Sean, I felt a bit convicted about my blog. While the original purpose of this blog was a man diary started out of the frustration of the 2008 Presidential Election, I feel like it needs to be more now, I'm being called to make it more. I've been trying to change my blogging ways recently. As some of you may have noticed, I've quit blogging about politics, or at least slowed way down. As I've been spending more time on my faith, the political back and forth has meant less and less to me. Additionally, even though I do not agree with our President on anything other than Golf is really fun, it doesn't help anybody if I waste my time ripping on the President on this blog. From today on, I plan to keep my political blogs to a minimum, and when I do comment politically, I plan to look at the political issues of the day from a Christ-centered world view, rather than a Republican point of view. After all, I'm a Christian first and that's how I should be looking at these things.
I don't plan to stop doing movie reviews, book reviews, posting recipes or talking about sports. After all, fun is ok, as long as fun doesn't become a god. Remember, we aren't made for comfort (or fun), we are made for greatness. I am, going to make an effort in all my blogs, to take a Christ-centered world view. For example, if a movie is wholly immoral, I'm going to make sure that is included in my review, so my Christian friends can make appropriate decisions.
I pray that all my friends who currently read my blog will continue to read this blog, and hopefully get a little more out of it going forward. I feel that I've moved beyond the need for a man diary, and really want to get into some more in depth sharing with my friends on this blog. But, for those who worry that it'll lose it's random charm, don't worry, it's still my random ramblings because I think I have undiagnosed A.D.D., so random thing pop my head all the time, and some of those things continue to be blog worthy.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Consider it All Joy...
My friend Nuke, who probably thinks I'm stalking him, likes to quote from James 1:2, which says "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials." I don't know about you, but I think that is really, really, really hard!
Today was a busy and rough day at work. E-mail was flying in like mad, and there's a key milestone approaching for one of the programs I'm working on, so I spent a lot of my day fighting fires there. Now, the weather outside was just about perfect today...upper 60's, sunny and not much wind. So, around 2 pm, I left a message at home asking if I could golf tonight. I had planned to play a few holes tonight after supper, but with it being so nice, I was hoping I could get 9 in. I knew my wife and kids were having a play date with another family, so I thought they could order pizza and I could golf. My wife thought this was a great idea.
This really brought me joy...very easy to Consider it All Joy at this moment. I got to the golf course at 5:00 or so and tee'd off right away. As I was walking to the green on hole 2, my wife called to say that the other family had to leave, but that they were going to ride bikes downtown, hit the awesome pizza place down there and then go to the library. So, more joy for me...everybody was having a good time.
As I got to the tee box on the 6th hole, my phone rang again. It was my wife again, and this time, our 7 year old was having a melt down and I needed to come help. Now, our 7 year old is autistic, so melt downs are not uncommon, but they have been more rare lately. Angry now, I headed for the car, angrily threw my clubs in the back and headed to the library, which is only about 4 minutes from the golf course. At this point, I was not doing very well with considering it all joy. Amazing how easy it is to be joyful when the good times are rolling and how hard it gets as soon as the trials pop up.
I got to the library, loaded my son and his bike into the van and told him that we were going home, we were going to eat supper, he was going to take a shower and he was going to bed. I also explained, somewhat angrily (ok, quite angrily), how his actions were adversely affecting every one's night. This broke his heart and he started to cry. But I was seething, so I still wasn't the nicest dad in the world even after he started crying. When we got home, my son went inside and I got the mail. When I got inside, he was sitting on the steps crying, and my heart melted. We talked for a little bit and I told him that I forgive him and that I loved him. I explained that he still had to go to bed early because that was his punishment and we talked about how he could do better in the future. He's very smart, so once he's calm, you can explain proper behavior to him, and little by little, it seems to be sinking in. Then we proceeded on with our night.
As I was getting supper on the table, "Consider it all joy..." popped into my head. Well, I failed miserably at that tonight. I really should have embraced my job as a father tonight, rather than focusing on my own selfish desire to play golf. Well...message received, loud and clear. I wonder if I'll remember this the next time I'm given an opportunity to consider it all joy in the face of a trial. I pray that I will, but knowing my nature, I'll probably fail again, but maybe next time I'll remember how I'm supposed to behave sooner. I know I can't be perfect and that I'll always slip up, but hopefully, little by little, I'll learn proper behavior too.
Today was a busy and rough day at work. E-mail was flying in like mad, and there's a key milestone approaching for one of the programs I'm working on, so I spent a lot of my day fighting fires there. Now, the weather outside was just about perfect today...upper 60's, sunny and not much wind. So, around 2 pm, I left a message at home asking if I could golf tonight. I had planned to play a few holes tonight after supper, but with it being so nice, I was hoping I could get 9 in. I knew my wife and kids were having a play date with another family, so I thought they could order pizza and I could golf. My wife thought this was a great idea.
This really brought me joy...very easy to Consider it All Joy at this moment. I got to the golf course at 5:00 or so and tee'd off right away. As I was walking to the green on hole 2, my wife called to say that the other family had to leave, but that they were going to ride bikes downtown, hit the awesome pizza place down there and then go to the library. So, more joy for me...everybody was having a good time.
As I got to the tee box on the 6th hole, my phone rang again. It was my wife again, and this time, our 7 year old was having a melt down and I needed to come help. Now, our 7 year old is autistic, so melt downs are not uncommon, but they have been more rare lately. Angry now, I headed for the car, angrily threw my clubs in the back and headed to the library, which is only about 4 minutes from the golf course. At this point, I was not doing very well with considering it all joy. Amazing how easy it is to be joyful when the good times are rolling and how hard it gets as soon as the trials pop up.
I got to the library, loaded my son and his bike into the van and told him that we were going home, we were going to eat supper, he was going to take a shower and he was going to bed. I also explained, somewhat angrily (ok, quite angrily), how his actions were adversely affecting every one's night. This broke his heart and he started to cry. But I was seething, so I still wasn't the nicest dad in the world even after he started crying. When we got home, my son went inside and I got the mail. When I got inside, he was sitting on the steps crying, and my heart melted. We talked for a little bit and I told him that I forgive him and that I loved him. I explained that he still had to go to bed early because that was his punishment and we talked about how he could do better in the future. He's very smart, so once he's calm, you can explain proper behavior to him, and little by little, it seems to be sinking in. Then we proceeded on with our night.
As I was getting supper on the table, "Consider it all joy..." popped into my head. Well, I failed miserably at that tonight. I really should have embraced my job as a father tonight, rather than focusing on my own selfish desire to play golf. Well...message received, loud and clear. I wonder if I'll remember this the next time I'm given an opportunity to consider it all joy in the face of a trial. I pray that I will, but knowing my nature, I'll probably fail again, but maybe next time I'll remember how I'm supposed to behave sooner. I know I can't be perfect and that I'll always slip up, but hopefully, little by little, I'll learn proper behavior too.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Book Review: "The Christian Atheist"
"The Christian Atheist" by Craig Groeschel was loaned to me by a friend several weeks ago. I'm glad they loaned it to me. It's a fast read, which is unusual for many Christian books.Written by Craig Groeschel, a Pastor of a fairly large Protestant Church, "The Christian Atheist" tackles the topic that many of today's Christians face. We say we believe in God, but live our lives as if we don't. We worry constantly, we rely on ourselves rather than God and we take part in many activities that we shouldn't. Groeschel points out his own Christian Atheism and then provides practical strategies for overcoming it.
I found this book to be pretty good. It wasn't overly complicated...in fact Nuke described it as a light read. I'd agree with that assessment. The best part of the entire book was the afterward when Groeschel explained the 3 lines of Christianity. When you cross line 1, you profess your belief in Christ, but don't really change anything. Crossing the second line means that you follow Christ and modify your behavior when it is comfortable for you. The third line is when you give your life completely over to God. To me, the afterward would make a really interesting book...maybe Mr. Groeschel will take the time to write that book.
I think this would be a good read for anybody who is lukewarm in their faith, or is currently a first liner. Overall, I don't feel like it was a waste of my time, and it probably won't be a waste of yours.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
We are all God's...Grills?
With a title like that, I bet you want to read more. I'm in the market for a new grill. Don't get me wrong, I still love my old grill, even with it's hotspots and coldspots, sticky spots and rusty spots. It's just that my cooking desires have outgrown the capabilities of my $99 Home Depot special that my mom and dad bought be 9 years ago when we moved into this house. It's been a great grill for a long time, even after the igniter went out 5 years ago. If I could find a reason to have 2 grills, I would keep it. But, we don't tailgate before football games, and the new grill that I'm looking at will be plenty large for us to use to entertain. So, I plan to give my old grill away to anybody who wants it.
So, last night, I went to Lowe's and Menard's to look at grills. Then I came home and did my bible reading. I'm reading from the Gospel of Luke right now. After finishing my bible reading, I read from "The Christian Atheist", which is a book a friend loaned to me. So, for a good hour, I got a message of how much God loves us. Then I went to sleep, but it was not a good night's sleep. My youngest son had a rough night's sleep, so my wife and I had rough nights of sleep. During one of my awake periods, I was thinking about grills and about God, and I came to the conclusion that we are all like my old grill, that I still love. We have our hotspots, we have our coldspots, we are maybe a little rusty, and possibly we are broken in some way. Yet God loves us despite all of these flaws, just like I love my little grill.
I don't know why, but that context to describe God's love really brought me comfort last night. You may just think it's weird, but I decided to write it on the off chance that someone else would see the world in the same, peculiar way I do, and take comfort. After all, we are all God's grills.
So, last night, I went to Lowe's and Menard's to look at grills. Then I came home and did my bible reading. I'm reading from the Gospel of Luke right now. After finishing my bible reading, I read from "The Christian Atheist", which is a book a friend loaned to me. So, for a good hour, I got a message of how much God loves us. Then I went to sleep, but it was not a good night's sleep. My youngest son had a rough night's sleep, so my wife and I had rough nights of sleep. During one of my awake periods, I was thinking about grills and about God, and I came to the conclusion that we are all like my old grill, that I still love. We have our hotspots, we have our coldspots, we are maybe a little rusty, and possibly we are broken in some way. Yet God loves us despite all of these flaws, just like I love my little grill.
I don't know why, but that context to describe God's love really brought me comfort last night. You may just think it's weird, but I decided to write it on the off chance that someone else would see the world in the same, peculiar way I do, and take comfort. After all, we are all God's grills.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Happy Lent Everybody!
Yeah, I know...Lent and Happy are not supposed to go together. Well, unless you understand what Lent is about, then, like me, you'll love Lent. For those who aren't aware of the Liturgical Calendar, today is the first day of Lent...Ash Wednesday. In just 6 weeks, we'll celebrate the biggest day on the church calendar...Easter.
As I get older, I get more perspective on Lent, and this is especially true since I converted to Catholicism. This is really a special time of year...a time for reflection and penance, and most importantly a time for spiritual growth and a deeper relationship with God. I know, some of you are probably saying, "why don't you focus on that year around?" and you do, but Lent seems to ratchet up the intensity of that focus and makes it more intentional. Every year, I pick something to work on during Lent, rather than giving up something like chocolate. Some years, it sticks better than others. I believe I have picked something this year that will really help me grow, and I ask for prayers that it will. I'm not sharing what I am working on. When Lent is over, I'll let you all in on the secret, and I'll let you know how I did.
I hope all of you are able to find time for spiritual growth over these next 40 days. Read the Bible a little more, spend a few extra minutes each day in prayer, try being nicer to your friends and coworkers, if you haven't been going to church, start going to church...or do all four. I pray that all of you experience a deepening of your relationship with God this Lent, and I hope you will pray for the same for me. God Bless!
As I get older, I get more perspective on Lent, and this is especially true since I converted to Catholicism. This is really a special time of year...a time for reflection and penance, and most importantly a time for spiritual growth and a deeper relationship with God. I know, some of you are probably saying, "why don't you focus on that year around?" and you do, but Lent seems to ratchet up the intensity of that focus and makes it more intentional. Every year, I pick something to work on during Lent, rather than giving up something like chocolate. Some years, it sticks better than others. I believe I have picked something this year that will really help me grow, and I ask for prayers that it will. I'm not sharing what I am working on. When Lent is over, I'll let you all in on the secret, and I'll let you know how I did.
I hope all of you are able to find time for spiritual growth over these next 40 days. Read the Bible a little more, spend a few extra minutes each day in prayer, try being nicer to your friends and coworkers, if you haven't been going to church, start going to church...or do all four. I pray that all of you experience a deepening of your relationship with God this Lent, and I hope you will pray for the same for me. God Bless!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Living Life with Passion and Purpose
The title of this blog is the title of the 1 day conference my wife and I attended with Matthew Kelly last Saturday. We had a wonderful day with about 1,000 other Catholics, and as I told Nuke earlier today, God was definitely in our midst. I'm not sure I can do the day justice in a blog, but I'm going to try to hit the highlights of the day. This is going to be really long, so please forgive typos. I'll try to proof read it as best I can.
After some opening remarks by Matthew Kelly, and a song by Eliot Morris, we got down to business. We had 6 hours and 4 sessions to cover, plus we had to squeeze lunch in there.
Session One was called the Voice of God. We discussed the 3 ordinary voices of God, those being Legitimate Need, Talent and Ability and the Voice of our Deepest Desire. These voices made a lot of sense to me, but what surprised me was the discussion on Talent and Ability. Matthew made the point that our Common Talents are far more powerful than our Unique Talents. Our common talents give us greater ability to be affect other people's lives than our unique talents. With our common talents, we can all answer the call to love God and each other a little more.
Session One continued with a strategy that Matthew uses to discern the voice of God. First, you have to enter the Classroom of Silence, which is 10-15 minutes of total silence. Second, you have to frame the question to God, and you can't change it. The question should be a Yes or a No type question. Once you have the question framed, you should enter the classroom of silence every day for 30 days, and at the end of your silence, ask God the question and then write down His answer. Then, write down what was going on that day, so you can evaluate whether the answer was from you or God. If you don't have 30 days, you have to do it more often to search for the answer. After whatever the specified period of time is, you should have an answer that you can be very sure is from God. If the decision involves more people, get the other people to do the same thing. Matthew can't promise that this will work for everybody, but it is a process that has worked for him throughout his life.
After some more music from Eliot Morris, we started Session 2, which was called "The Jesus Question." The theme of this session is, how do we answer the question that Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?". This session focused on how we, as Catholics answer that question, and further, how we live it out, specifically focusing on the fact that Catholics believe the Eucharist is Jesus' body and blood.
This session eventually moved into Bible reading, which is the next step after answering the Jesus question, and this is where Matthew stressed that we live an average of 77 years. In 77 years, we better read the only book God ever wrote, because He will ask. We make time to watch all kinds of things on TV and read all kinds of books, but we can't make 10-15 minutes a day to read the Word of God. The suggested strategy for Bible reading, if you haven't been doing it, was to begin with the 4 Gospels, and read them over and over again for a year. Then spend the 2nd year reading the New Testament over and over again. Once you understand these parts of the Bible, the Old Testament and it's ties to the New Testament make more sense.
Finally, this session ended with coaching. We have 2 methods, as Catholics, to get coaching. We can read good Spiritual books. In addition to Bible reading, Matthew suggested reading a good Spiritual Book for 10-15 minutes a day. This can be a book about a Saint, or just something like "Rediscovering Catholicism" (my example, not his). The other method for coaching is Reconciliation, where the Priest absolves our sins and coaches us on better behavior.
Session 3 was an interactive session. We were looking at our Spiritual History, so Matthew asked us a series of questions around a topic, and we were asked to write down how we did on that topic at various stages in our life. This was eye opening for me. I only really got serious about my faith in the last year or so...I mean really serious. I had tried things off and on for the past 5-6 years, but the last year has been much more serious. I found that, for the first 30 years of my life, I was pretty darn selfish and probably pretty difficult to live with. I resolved to do a better job in the next 30 years, should God give me 30 more years.
The final session was called "Setting the World On Fire." In this session, we learned a new method to quiet our minds for prayer. As a group of 1,000 people, we entered the Classroom of Silence, and were asked to sit completely still and focus on the image of a rose. If we got an itch or an urge to move, we were told to ignore it. If a stray thought popped into our head, we were told to refocus on our prayer. The idea was to force ourself to ignore the outside world, bascially building our spiritual muscle. This focusing was to quiet our minds, which is very difficult. But after 2-3 minutes, I did feel like my mind had quieted a bit. I tried this again last night, fully intending to spend 10-15 minutes, but I must have done a really good job quieting my mind, because I dozed off. I'll have to practice.
Finally, Matthew closed with some motivational words. We all have it within us to change our habits and become the person God wants us to be (the best-version-of-ourselves). As we make these changes, we become more holy, which makes us more appealing to those around us. One person can make a difference in his home, his Parish and even in the world, by living genuinely, striving every day to be the person God wants us to be. And that's really the goal of all this, to become the person God wants us to be.
Just a wonderful day. I learned so much and I'm working to apply it. I bought a couple of books this weekend and I'm looking forward to reading them. I'm working to become a better-version-of-myself, and I hope that I can help others do this in their lives as well, starting with my family and friends. I know I didn't do this conference justice with this blog. If anyone out there gets a chance to attend a Matthew Kelly event, I highly recommend it.
After some opening remarks by Matthew Kelly, and a song by Eliot Morris, we got down to business. We had 6 hours and 4 sessions to cover, plus we had to squeeze lunch in there.
Session One was called the Voice of God. We discussed the 3 ordinary voices of God, those being Legitimate Need, Talent and Ability and the Voice of our Deepest Desire. These voices made a lot of sense to me, but what surprised me was the discussion on Talent and Ability. Matthew made the point that our Common Talents are far more powerful than our Unique Talents. Our common talents give us greater ability to be affect other people's lives than our unique talents. With our common talents, we can all answer the call to love God and each other a little more.
Session One continued with a strategy that Matthew uses to discern the voice of God. First, you have to enter the Classroom of Silence, which is 10-15 minutes of total silence. Second, you have to frame the question to God, and you can't change it. The question should be a Yes or a No type question. Once you have the question framed, you should enter the classroom of silence every day for 30 days, and at the end of your silence, ask God the question and then write down His answer. Then, write down what was going on that day, so you can evaluate whether the answer was from you or God. If you don't have 30 days, you have to do it more often to search for the answer. After whatever the specified period of time is, you should have an answer that you can be very sure is from God. If the decision involves more people, get the other people to do the same thing. Matthew can't promise that this will work for everybody, but it is a process that has worked for him throughout his life.
After some more music from Eliot Morris, we started Session 2, which was called "The Jesus Question." The theme of this session is, how do we answer the question that Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?". This session focused on how we, as Catholics answer that question, and further, how we live it out, specifically focusing on the fact that Catholics believe the Eucharist is Jesus' body and blood.
This session eventually moved into Bible reading, which is the next step after answering the Jesus question, and this is where Matthew stressed that we live an average of 77 years. In 77 years, we better read the only book God ever wrote, because He will ask. We make time to watch all kinds of things on TV and read all kinds of books, but we can't make 10-15 minutes a day to read the Word of God. The suggested strategy for Bible reading, if you haven't been doing it, was to begin with the 4 Gospels, and read them over and over again for a year. Then spend the 2nd year reading the New Testament over and over again. Once you understand these parts of the Bible, the Old Testament and it's ties to the New Testament make more sense.
Finally, this session ended with coaching. We have 2 methods, as Catholics, to get coaching. We can read good Spiritual books. In addition to Bible reading, Matthew suggested reading a good Spiritual Book for 10-15 minutes a day. This can be a book about a Saint, or just something like "Rediscovering Catholicism" (my example, not his). The other method for coaching is Reconciliation, where the Priest absolves our sins and coaches us on better behavior.
Session 3 was an interactive session. We were looking at our Spiritual History, so Matthew asked us a series of questions around a topic, and we were asked to write down how we did on that topic at various stages in our life. This was eye opening for me. I only really got serious about my faith in the last year or so...I mean really serious. I had tried things off and on for the past 5-6 years, but the last year has been much more serious. I found that, for the first 30 years of my life, I was pretty darn selfish and probably pretty difficult to live with. I resolved to do a better job in the next 30 years, should God give me 30 more years.
The final session was called "Setting the World On Fire." In this session, we learned a new method to quiet our minds for prayer. As a group of 1,000 people, we entered the Classroom of Silence, and were asked to sit completely still and focus on the image of a rose. If we got an itch or an urge to move, we were told to ignore it. If a stray thought popped into our head, we were told to refocus on our prayer. The idea was to force ourself to ignore the outside world, bascially building our spiritual muscle. This focusing was to quiet our minds, which is very difficult. But after 2-3 minutes, I did feel like my mind had quieted a bit. I tried this again last night, fully intending to spend 10-15 minutes, but I must have done a really good job quieting my mind, because I dozed off. I'll have to practice.
Finally, Matthew closed with some motivational words. We all have it within us to change our habits and become the person God wants us to be (the best-version-of-ourselves). As we make these changes, we become more holy, which makes us more appealing to those around us. One person can make a difference in his home, his Parish and even in the world, by living genuinely, striving every day to be the person God wants us to be. And that's really the goal of all this, to become the person God wants us to be.
Just a wonderful day. I learned so much and I'm working to apply it. I bought a couple of books this weekend and I'm looking forward to reading them. I'm working to become a better-version-of-myself, and I hope that I can help others do this in their lives as well, starting with my family and friends. I know I didn't do this conference justice with this blog. If anyone out there gets a chance to attend a Matthew Kelly event, I highly recommend it.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Book Review: Rediscovering Catholicism
"Rediscovering Catholicism" by Matthew Kelly is a must read for every Catholic, especially those who have left the Church, or are disengaged Catholics (i.e. they go to Mass, but don't participate). Once you read this book, I guarantee you'll be motivated to become the best-version-of-yourself, the version of yourself that God wants you to be. Furthermore, you'll understand why the Catholic church offers you the best chance to achieve that.
The entire theme of "Rediscovering Catholicism" is becoming the best-version-of-yourself, how you can do that, and how that can reawaken the Catholic church. Need an example to help you get started on your journey, no problem, the Catholic church has the Saints to be our role models. These are people who were driven by a single minded purpose to be the person God wanted them to be, and they didn't let the world get in their way. Need coaching along the way, no problem, the Catholic church has the Sacrament of Reconciliation where not only do you receive absolution, but you get advice from the Priest. This entire book is filled with stories and examples designed to help you change your habits and be the person God wants you to be.
I've already started trying to live out what I learned in this book. I've been plugging away at it in 15-20 minute increments for quite a while now. I've been implementing some better habits because Matthew Kelly gave me some some ideas on habits I should be implementing. I'm eager to see the person I will be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years if I continue to stick with what I learned in the pages of "Rediscovering Catholicism".
On a related note, my wife and I attended a 1 day conference with Matthew Kelly today. It was fantastic, but I need to process some and figure out how to effectively share the insight I gained today.
A note to my Protestant, Evangelical and Non-Denominational friends...there's an entire chapter about why Catholics should read the Bible, every day. It was one of the best chapters in the book, and that is one of the habits I have implemented.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Blizzard of 2011
I still have 2 book reviews to write, but today I feel like I need to comment on the Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music here). It was a cold February day in Iowa. At 1 pm on February 1st, it began to snow...and it continued on into the night. The wind howled at 30+ mph. Sometime during the night, the snow stopped, but the wind continued. At 4:45 am, my place of employment auto-called me to let me know not to come to work. At 4:50 am, my place of employment auto-called my cell phone to let me know not to come to work. At 4:55 am, my place of employment auto-called the home phone (again) to let me know not to come to work. Apparently they really didn't want me there.
Fast forward a few hours, and my wife (bless her) and I were outside shoveling. Yes, we were shoveling because we like the challenge...and because we don't have anywhere to put a snow blower...and because we're too cheap to buy a snow blower. We had a 4 foot drift across our driveway to clear...with a shovel. We managed to get the driveway clear and thankfully our neighbor with a snow blower did our sidewalk. It was about noon at this time.
Around 1 pm, the plow driver (God Bless those men) came by and closed in our driveway. My wife and I went out again and spent another 30 minutes clearing the snow that the plow pushed into our driveway. We have 5 foot high piles of snow at the end of our driveway, and at least 3-4 foot high piles all along our driveway. All totalled, between my wife and I, we spent 3 hours shovelling. I'm going to be very sore tomorrow.
The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) dumped ~13 inches on our little corner of Iowa. I know it dumped greater amounts elsewhere, and is still dropping huge amounts of snow as it moves east. My story is being replayed all across our country (stupid global warming).
But, in the midst of this, I actually find that I'm grateful to God for a great many things.
I'm grateful that...
...my wife is so wonderful and so willing to shovel. In fact, most of the time she does all the shovelling. She likes the challenge.
...my kids were so good while we were out shovelling.
...my place of employment saw fit to give us the day off (sort of, still gotta make up the time)
...we have a warm house and that the power stayed on
...we have neighbors willing to snow blow our sidewalk
...my friend Nuke and his wife got home from the hospital before the worst of the storm hit
...the plows cleared our street, even though they pushed an insane amount of snow into my driveway
...I didn't have to shave (I hate shaving but I look silly with a full beard)
Here's hoping that the rest of you who experienced The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) can find as much of a silver lining as I did.
Fast forward a few hours, and my wife (bless her) and I were outside shoveling. Yes, we were shoveling because we like the challenge...and because we don't have anywhere to put a snow blower...and because we're too cheap to buy a snow blower. We had a 4 foot drift across our driveway to clear...with a shovel. We managed to get the driveway clear and thankfully our neighbor with a snow blower did our sidewalk. It was about noon at this time.
Around 1 pm, the plow driver (God Bless those men) came by and closed in our driveway. My wife and I went out again and spent another 30 minutes clearing the snow that the plow pushed into our driveway. We have 5 foot high piles of snow at the end of our driveway, and at least 3-4 foot high piles all along our driveway. All totalled, between my wife and I, we spent 3 hours shovelling. I'm going to be very sore tomorrow.
The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) dumped ~13 inches on our little corner of Iowa. I know it dumped greater amounts elsewhere, and is still dropping huge amounts of snow as it moves east. My story is being replayed all across our country (stupid global warming).
But, in the midst of this, I actually find that I'm grateful to God for a great many things.
I'm grateful that...
...my wife is so wonderful and so willing to shovel. In fact, most of the time she does all the shovelling. She likes the challenge.
...my kids were so good while we were out shovelling.
...my place of employment saw fit to give us the day off (sort of, still gotta make up the time)
...we have a warm house and that the power stayed on
...we have neighbors willing to snow blow our sidewalk
...my friend Nuke and his wife got home from the hospital before the worst of the storm hit
...the plows cleared our street, even though they pushed an insane amount of snow into my driveway
...I didn't have to shave (I hate shaving but I look silly with a full beard)
Here's hoping that the rest of you who experienced The Blizzard of 2011 (insert dramatic music) can find as much of a silver lining as I did.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Book Review: Nuts & Bolts, A Practical, How-to Guide for Explaining and Defending the Catholic Faith
Wow, that's a long title for a book. For the rest of this review, I'm just going to call it "Nuts & Bolts". Some friends of ours lent us "Nuts & Bolts" by Tim Staples about a year ago. I let Nuke borrow it, and only recently did I decide I would read it myself.
Why did I decide to read it? Well, I went to a session on prayer with one of the Priests at my church. We got on the topic of continual conversion, and he emphasized that we have to work on changing our habits in our lives if we are ever going to become the type of people God wants us to be. So, right after that, I started reading from the Bible and praying every morning...so far I've done fairly well with that, though I've missed a few days. But, my evening routine was still the same...get my work done, relax in front of the TV, watch TV in bed, maybe remember to say my prayers, toss and turn for 30 minutes, then fall asleep.
About 2 weeks ago, I was in the middle of some serious insomnia, so I decided to try reading, but I didn't want to read a "fun" book, because that would just get me wired up. I had "Nuts & Bolts" on my bedside table, so I started reading it. I read about 1 to 2 chapters a night, and I found that it put me in a calmer mood, helped me to be more prayerful before bed, and I was falling asleep faster. Now, I'm trying to make reading an educational book a constant part of my nighttime routine.
Now, on to the book review. "Nuts & Bolts" is a good, beginner, Catholic apologetics book. I think if you are predisposed to be Catholic, you will agree with most everything in this book, and be excited that there is Scripture to back up the things that Catholics do (Reconciliation, Prayer to Saints, etc.). However, I can also see why Nuke wasn't convinced. Tim Staples sets up really good straw man scenarios throughout the book, but frankly, those in the "arguments" with his characters don't put up much of a fight.
If you are a Catholic who doesn't know the Scriptural basis for the things you believe, read this book. If you have an inkling that you might be predisposed to being a Catholic, read "Nut & Bolts" by Tim Staples. If, after reading it, you think, there might be something to this Catholic thing, talk to your local Parish RCIA coordinator.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
The Songs We Fill Our Heads With
It's almost 10 pm. I have to be at church at 6:30 am to play piano at the 7, 9 and 11 am masses, and I'm blogging for the 2nd time tonight. Why am I doing this? Well, because I have a thought stuck in my head...brought up by a friend at prayer group 2 Fridays ago. Why is it that most of the songs that we listened to, and loved, when were kids have a really screwed up message, if you really listen to the lyrics? What did we fill our heads with as kids?
Today I listen to mostly Christian music or talk radio (sports or conservative). My kids listen almost solely to Christian radio, and I'm thankful for that.
One song in particular has had me vexed (yes, I said vexed) for the past couple of days. When I was in high school, I loved the Crash Test Dummies. One song in particular that I enjoyed was "God Shuffled His Feet". You can listen to the song and watch the video at this YouTube link. I can take 2 possible meanings from this song:
1) Earthly concerns are silly and God, as portrayed in this video, is trying to demonstrate this, by not answering the questions that the people ask, and instead telling them a parable that, sadly, they don't understand. For example, they ask questions like "If you're eye, got poked out in this life, will it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?" God responds by shuffling his feet, glancing around and then telling a parable about a boy with blue hair. If I run with this interpretation of the song, God is saying, things of this earth are not important in heaven, so don't be concerned with earthly things.
2) This option is more cynical. One could take from this song that God is some distant being that is just messing with us, like we're here for his entertainment. Given the video, that is likely what the songwriter or video producer wanted me to take away as the meaning.
Where I get really off is the Crash Test Dummies have another song called, "How Does a Duck Know", and in this song, they seem to marvel at the fact that "everything seems planned out, everything seems so nicely planned out." Someone had to do the planning. When I was a kid, I assumed these guys were men of faith because of these 2 songs. I might be wrong with this assumption, but I think I can still choose number 1 as my takeaway. I was talking with Nuke about this on Friday, and he pointed me to 1 Thessalonians 5:21, "Test everything. Hold on to the good."
So, I'm going to choose to take option 1 as the meaning I get from this song that I loved so much as a kid. Even if the Crash Test Dummies meant option 2, I believe that I can choose to take the good message from it and throw away the rest. I'm also going to stick to my Christian music going forward...at least I'm pretty sure I know what message it is trying to convey.
Today I listen to mostly Christian music or talk radio (sports or conservative). My kids listen almost solely to Christian radio, and I'm thankful for that.
One song in particular has had me vexed (yes, I said vexed) for the past couple of days. When I was in high school, I loved the Crash Test Dummies. One song in particular that I enjoyed was "God Shuffled His Feet". You can listen to the song and watch the video at this YouTube link. I can take 2 possible meanings from this song:
1) Earthly concerns are silly and God, as portrayed in this video, is trying to demonstrate this, by not answering the questions that the people ask, and instead telling them a parable that, sadly, they don't understand. For example, they ask questions like "If you're eye, got poked out in this life, will it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?" God responds by shuffling his feet, glancing around and then telling a parable about a boy with blue hair. If I run with this interpretation of the song, God is saying, things of this earth are not important in heaven, so don't be concerned with earthly things.
2) This option is more cynical. One could take from this song that God is some distant being that is just messing with us, like we're here for his entertainment. Given the video, that is likely what the songwriter or video producer wanted me to take away as the meaning.
Where I get really off is the Crash Test Dummies have another song called, "How Does a Duck Know", and in this song, they seem to marvel at the fact that "everything seems planned out, everything seems so nicely planned out." Someone had to do the planning. When I was a kid, I assumed these guys were men of faith because of these 2 songs. I might be wrong with this assumption, but I think I can still choose number 1 as my takeaway. I was talking with Nuke about this on Friday, and he pointed me to 1 Thessalonians 5:21, "Test everything. Hold on to the good."
So, I'm going to choose to take option 1 as the meaning I get from this song that I loved so much as a kid. Even if the Crash Test Dummies meant option 2, I believe that I can choose to take the good message from it and throw away the rest. I'm also going to stick to my Christian music going forward...at least I'm pretty sure I know what message it is trying to convey.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
"We Are One Body"
This is a song that the Men's Choir that I accompany at my church is currently learning. We will be leading this song at mass in 2 weeks. I'm really excited about this one and I wanted to share it. It's about 6 minutes long...enjoy!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The Ultimate Super Hero
About an hour ago, I was at Wendy's with my son. We were talking about super heroes, because that's what he loves to do. He was telling me who his favorite heroes were, and then he asked me who mine was. I thought about a book I've been reading, and finally told him, Jesus Christ! We only talked for a little while longer before we went back to your typical comic super heroes, but hopefully it got him thinking, and maybe it will get you thinking too.
I mean, just think about it. Jesus is the Son of God, so right there He has a leg up on other super heroes. He can walk on water...pretty cool. He can change water into wine, very fun at parties. He can heal the sick, the blind and the lame...always a good skill to have, especially on a super hero team . He can multiply loaves of bread and fish, so you always have something to eat when Jesus is around. He's a natural leader...look at all the people who would follow Him around and hang on His every word. And finally, Jesus defeated the power of death itself...I don't know any other super heroes that can do that (no, Superman doesn't count, because he was only mostly dead after fighting Doomsday).
But seriously, how much better off would the world be if more people thought of Jesus Christ as their hero? If heroes are supposed to be the best examples for us to look up to and try to emulate, there is no better example in all of history than Jesus Christ. I really hope our little chat stuck in my son's brain somewhere, and I hope it sticks in the minds of anyone who reads this blog.
I mean, just think about it. Jesus is the Son of God, so right there He has a leg up on other super heroes. He can walk on water...pretty cool. He can change water into wine, very fun at parties. He can heal the sick, the blind and the lame...always a good skill to have, especially on a super hero team . He can multiply loaves of bread and fish, so you always have something to eat when Jesus is around. He's a natural leader...look at all the people who would follow Him around and hang on His every word. And finally, Jesus defeated the power of death itself...I don't know any other super heroes that can do that (no, Superman doesn't count, because he was only mostly dead after fighting Doomsday).
But seriously, how much better off would the world be if more people thought of Jesus Christ as their hero? If heroes are supposed to be the best examples for us to look up to and try to emulate, there is no better example in all of history than Jesus Christ. I really hope our little chat stuck in my son's brain somewhere, and I hope it sticks in the minds of anyone who reads this blog.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter!
He is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia! Happy Easter everyone.
As a Christian, this is the holiest day of the year. Jesus Christ conquered death! It doesn't get any bigger than that. For our family, it actually started last night. We went to the Easter Vigil at our parish. Mass started at 8:30 pm and got over after 11 pm. Yes, it's long, but it's worth it. If you've never been to a Catholic Easter Vigil, you need to go at least once in your life. Even non-Catholics should go. It's quite the holy experience. We find it so uplifting that we took our 2 boys (who's normal bedtime is 8 pm) and went, and we don't regret it today, despite the fact that Nicholas woke up before 7 am.
Anyway, I pray this day finds you in celebration with family and friends. We should celebrate this day above all others. Alleluia indeed!
As a Christian, this is the holiest day of the year. Jesus Christ conquered death! It doesn't get any bigger than that. For our family, it actually started last night. We went to the Easter Vigil at our parish. Mass started at 8:30 pm and got over after 11 pm. Yes, it's long, but it's worth it. If you've never been to a Catholic Easter Vigil, you need to go at least once in your life. Even non-Catholics should go. It's quite the holy experience. We find it so uplifting that we took our 2 boys (who's normal bedtime is 8 pm) and went, and we don't regret it today, despite the fact that Nicholas woke up before 7 am.
Anyway, I pray this day finds you in celebration with family and friends. We should celebrate this day above all others. Alleluia indeed!
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