Day 17: Truth

But he passed through the midst of them and went away

Luke 4:30

This the last line of the gospel for today. To sum up everything before this, Jesus basically walked into town and pissed the town off by essentially saying “change your unhealthy ways.” He even talked about their heritage and how they got screwed because they didn’t change. They then chased him to the edge of town which happened to be a cliff, wanting to chuck him down it. Then… ‘he passed through the midst of them and went away.’ Quite harsh.

Being told that you suck is never an easy thing to take. When someone with an outside perspective lays out the truth, I can’t help but get defensive. After all, they’re talking directly about me, my thinking, and my rationale for doing things (or not doing things). I really do want to throw this truth-telling person off a cliff for cracking my ego.

But I have to realize that truth will always find a way. No matter if I throw this person off a cliff or not, it doesn’t change the fact that this person was right. So truth, like Jesus in this gospel, passed through the crowd and went away. You can’t kill the truth, or worse yet, hide it. Especially after it’s been said. But it will eventually be back somehow, and it may not be so nice when it does.

So when truth comes back into town, I gotta put the armour on my skin, and off of my heart, and not the other way around.

Tags | catholic, reflection

Day 16: Ripple

Self-Revelation as a Father No. 19084:

What seems to be a little ripple now, becomes a tsunami of hurt and misunderstanding later on.
Be present, initiate , and be intentional with my time, my actions and my love.

Tags | catholic, Lent 2011, reflection

Day 15: Greatness

I know I’m destined for greatness. We all are!

But maybe I have a hard time recognizing this potential because my expectations are usually born out of a storybook imagination as opposed to a grounded vision.

If you’re anything like me, I sometimes imagine scenarios in my head that look and feel like a movie. Edited perfectly, amazing cinematography and at times a great soundtrack to boot. This sometimes gets the best of me when I start to pray about how I can respond to God’s love. That all the wonderful Christian service I put forth is put in a musical montage where people are instantly marveled and inspired by all my hard work and the quirky ways I do them. 100 percent of the time, it’s never like that, and I’m quickly ushered out of the cinema in my head and into something a lot less “Oscar.”

As we all know, life doesn’t play out like the movies, but that doesn’t mean greatness can’t be achieved. It just may not be in the fashion I’ve imagined. True authentic greatness in God, is meekness here on earth. A lot of people associate being meek with being powerless. But in it’s true sense, it’s greatness being lived out in a humble and quiet confidence. It’s doing the small, gritty things with excellence and without complaint. It’s putting the extraordinary in what seems to be the ordinary.

Note to self: Greatness is everyday, not some annual award show.

 

Tags | catholic, Lent 2011, reflection

Day 14: Focus

It seems that Japan is the latest trend.

Maybe I need the major news coverage to wake me up, or have #japan hashtags flooding my twitter feed to take notice, or Facebook status updates to motivate me to do something. All this chaos in Japan got me reflecting about, past disasters that have just recently happened. Does anyone remember what happened to Christchurch, New Zealand? Does anyone even talk about Haiti anymore?

I took it a little further and started think about the what’s happening in Darfur, and various parts of Africa. Or hunger in all parts of the world. These ongoing tragedies without the headline buzz.

I think I get overwhelmed, with all this stuff, but I’m reminded that although my heart beats with compassion to help all, I can only be really effective if I can focus that compassion and translate that into helping one person effectively. I’m sure if I can do that consistently, I can begin helping another, and then another, and then another…

[highlight]If you’re reading this in an Imported Note in FACEBOOK, click here to watch the video.[/highlight]

Tags | catholic, Lent 2011, reflection, video

Day 13: Grind

“Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”

Matthew 20:22

This is one of the few times in the Gospel were Jesus was talking behind code a little bit. He was essentially saying “I’m about to fulfill my purpose, and it’s not going to be easy. Can you do what I’m about to do?”

It’s a reminder for me that nothing good ever comes without sacrifice, hard work or dedication.  I’ve observed that if good things do somehow come in an easy manner, they’re easily taken for granted and easily lost.

So grind it out baby. Do work. This happiness thing is a slow, steady process not some lottery winning.

Tags | catholic, Lent 2011, reflection