A Youthful Spirit

So, it has been about a month since my last post. Much has been going on with work and what not, but in recent days I have experienced a couple of happenings that I would like to share with you. These events are quite different in nature, but what I think they all do is show the limitless boundaries in which the Spirit operates.

First, I'd like to start with something that I experience on a daily basis. As many of you know, I coach cross country at the high school level. I work primarily with 12-14 year old boys. These guys compete in 2-mile races and their abilities range from 11 minutes to 26 minutes. What strikes me as amazing every day is the support and encouragement that most of these guys give each other. One young man in particular approached me to suggest that another team member be moved up into a better training group because their current group was too slow for him. This kind of selflessness at such a young age is truly inspiring for me. Watching these guys work hard (while still maintaining their silliness and immaturity of course), gets me excited for the type of young men and athletes they will become down the road. I know that with each practice, our guys are experiencing the Spirit in their lives through the camaraderie of their teammates as well as the care of those of us who coach them. I am eager to see how the rest of our season plays out.

The second item is a more isolated event that I had the honor of experiencing this weekend. I was invited to take part in one of the four overnight retreats that our senior class attends every year. This retreat focuses on understanding true Christian manhood. Seeing seniors in high school come together for a couple of days and open themselves up to the surrender and compassion needed to live a truly humble life in the Spirit is awesome. This retreat gave me the opportunity to view the upperclassmen in light of my daily experiences with the lowerclassmen. This allowed me to view the maturity and attitude of the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders that I coach to that of these seniors. I must say that these seniors, while still having much room for growth, already seem to have a faithful grasp of life. As one speaker mentioned, this age group is living in a unique stage of life where they have the energy of boys with the wisdom of men.  This speaker encouraged the young man to seize the rest of their senior year as well as the next several years of life and become powerful men through their faith, humility, and love. I pray that these young men will continue to face the challenges of their lives with a spirit of fortitude that can only come from God. While the retreat contained many wonderful discussions and activities, I will not mention those in the interest of maintaining the surprise and wonder of the young men yet to make their retreat. Just know that the Spirit of courage and confidence that we try to share with the seniors was very alive this weekend and will continue to be thanks to the efforts of the campus ministry team and faculty who put on these wonderful retreats.

I pray that we all can find the innocence and energy of our youth and combine it with the wisdom and knowledge of adulthood to become the best human beings we can be in this life. The Spirit is alive and well.  If we continue to run the race and take time to retreat, we are certain to experience the Spirit daily!

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

A Humble Spirit

Hello, friends,
I can't believe that it has been almost a month since my last post.  I guess I need to make a more concerted effort amid my new schedule to reflect and write a bit more.  This being said, I do have thoughts that come to mind during the day, but I simply haven't taken the time to put them down in writing.

Anyway, a thought that has remained in the forefront of my mind is one from a few weeks ago. I heard a priest give a homily on one of the most important qualities that we can possess: humility. The timing of his lesson was interesting given that football season was starting and certain collegiate football players were gaining media attention for being anything but humble. I realized then that we have way too many egos in our world today.  The priest shared a quote with us this quote from a best selling author:

There are two kinds of people in the world. One kind of person when entering a room will say, "Well, here I am!" The other kind of person when entering the room will not say anything but rather other folks will say, "Oh, look, there he is!" 

This quote resonated with me because I know at times I have been the first kind of person drawing undue attention to myself rather than just allowing myself to be present.  I thought of this quote in terms of our presence before amid the Spirit of God. I feel like God always notices us when we "enter the room" and is saying "Oh, look, there he is!" God has every right to be the first kind of being who brings attention to God's self, but rather, always shows us loving attention.

So, as we go forward this week and beyond, let us all recognize the presence of others rather than making our presence known.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

God bless Earth

Hello friends,
Thank you for your patience in between my posts.  I have enjoyed beginning my new teaching job, but I am still trying to find a good time each week when I can sit and write.

My post this week may be one of the more random connections to the Spirit that I feel I have ever documented.  So, this past Friday evening, I competed in a two-mile road race with some of my training buddies.  Prior to the race, as expected, a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner was played.  The race director played the famous Whitney Houston version of our national anthem.  Personally, I am not a fan of this version, and as a result, my mind wandered for most of the recording.  My mind did, however, wander toward the idea of patriotism.  Patriotism in the United States confuses me.  I often see and hear images, symbols, slogans, etc. that attempt to link patriotism to Christianity.  When we say/sing "God Bless America," what exactly do we mean?  Are we asking God to bless this country more than other countries? Are we claiming that we have the market on God's blessings while others receive God's hand-me-downs?  Are we invoking God to be on our side rather than on the side of others?  These are inflections and connotations that I can not help but feel sometimes.  I would like to think that when we say "God bless America" we are asking God for the grace to help others around the world by using the plethora of resources at our disposal to promote the common world good rather than for just our own benefit.  I think what is important here is to remember that the Spirit of God moves where it will and that includes any and all places of the world (not just the U.S.).  So, how did all of this come from listening to one of my least favorite national anthem recordings?  I can not say.  All I know is that I now have more food for thought.

In addition to this thought provoking recording, I found myself watching the movie, The Soloist (2009), on Saturday evening.  This is a remarkable movie about mental health, homelessness, and the power of music.  In this film, a Julliard level cellist, is living on the street after going through mental anguish as a young man.  This based-on-a-true-story movie, pointed out even more to me the confusion I find in being patriotic in this country.  We have so many resources in this country that could end national hunger, decrease poverty, and promote better standards of living for most people.  However, we seem to have such a problem making these resources available to others.  Meanwhile, we say "God bless America" while often turning a blind eye to these circumstances.  Why is that?  I wish I knew the answer.  So, I guess my challenge for all of us who live here in the United States and profess faith in God, is to remember our blessings daily and truly strive to give of ourselves to our countrymen and women (and ultimately the world citizens at large).  In doing so, I pray that our efforts may one day to say God bless the United Countries of Earth.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

An Extra "Ordinary" Piece

As I start my new obligations as a high school religion teacher, I worry that I will not have as much time to devote to my blog.  I certainly will not give up on this entirely.  However, please be patient with me in my posting.  I'll try to post something each week even if it just a simple sharing of something I found inspiring.  Please enjoy this article that I found from one of my favorite websites recently.  The article builds off of my thoughts from last week.

Relevant Magazine Article

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

Ordinary is Extraordinary

Since my last post, I have found myself thinking about my spiritual sisu a bit more.  I continue to ask myself, "How can I find my spiritual greatness?"  I find it almost humorous how timely God tends to answer questions like these.  I guess the gospel last Sunday (Luke 11: 1-13) should have given me the confidence that I would receive an answer.  The gospel did talk about asking, seeking, and knocking in order to learn from the Spirit.  So, what answer did the Spirit give my inquiry into finding spiritual greatness?  Well, the answer actually revolves around simply being ordinary.

Now, you might be asking, "Drew, how can you expect to become great from being ordinary?"  First, let's look at the word extraordinary.  If we break the word into two parts: extra and ordinary, then the simple answer is that we just need to be more ordinary in our daily goings-on.  Huh? More ordinary?  Stay with me I'm not trying to confuse anyone.  I'm simply trying to explain that greatness does not necessarily come from doing superhuman things.  Rather, it comes from our ability to do necessary everyday things well.  Here are a few examples of everyday things: being polite, saying hello to people who cross your path, picking up litter and throwing it away or recycling it, smiling, being patient while driving, listening when others speak to you, etc.  None of the above are overly difficult.  They are quite ordinary practices, and yet, how often do we neglect to do these things?  I know I neglect them on a daily basis.  One good example of a man doing ordinary things well, who has been in the news lately, is Pope Francis.  In my opinion, he should be called the "ordinary pope."  For those who have not been following him, you should do a little research into his activities lately.  He seems to epitomize being ordinary.  He has done his very best (up to this point) to shed the image of royalty and authority often associated with church hierarchy for a much more down to earth image.  He did not invent this image, though.  He is simply trying to bring the image of Jesus back to the forefront.  If we pay close enough attention to Jesus in the scriptures, we find that he was the best at being ordinary.  He seemed to do all of the little ordinary things that would benefit others in large extraordinary ways.  So, by doing the ordinary things extremely well, Jesus was extraordinary.  This is how we find our spiritual greatness.

Over the past week, I have found one avenue where I can practice being more ordinary than usual.  That avenue is in my friendship to others.  I have two friends that have gone through stress and sadness within this same week.  One friend, in the midst of taking the bar exam, had to face the reality that he had to put down his dog that had been suffering from prostate cancer.  The other friend, while on an annual vacation with his buddies of around fifteen years, lost one of those friends in a drowning accident.  Since, I have come to find out that the first friend actually knew the man who drowned, too.  Goodness.  What was I to do?  Naturally, I wanted to grieve with and for my friends, but would that be enough?  I wanted to do something extraordinary for them.  However, the more I thought about the extraordinary, the more I wasted time not doing anything.  In the end, my simple yet ordinary offering of prayers, support, and availability was exactly what these guys needed.  So, as we go forward in our lives, let us make a commitment to simply being the best kind of ordinary we can be and in doing so, we will become extraordinary.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

A Spirit of Sisu

Last year around this time, I posted about my experience as a camp counselor at the Gulf States Distance Running Camp in St. Benedict, LA.  Well, I would like to once again share some of my thoughts from this tiring yet motivating week.

I had the opportunity last week to give a talk to the camp about "Why I Choose to Run."  After much thought and reflection, I chose to revolve my talk around a word from the Finnish language that I have come to embrace: sisu.  From what I have come to know about sisu, it is a word that attempts to describe the spirit within humans being that encompasses guts, determination, "never give up" attitudes, and the like.  However, sisu represents these things and so much more.  It is more of a state of drive and perseverance that can only come from within a person.

In my talk I tried to challenge the athletes that in order to achieve greatness in their lives, they would need to find a sisu in their lives that is authentic to themselves.  Upon deeper reflection, I realized that sisu is probably that which the Spirit of God tries to instill in us as we face persecution, doubt, criticism, hatred, sadness, death, etc., in our lives.  The grit, determination, and toughness of sisu when viewed through a lens of the Spirit should always take the form of unceasing forgiveness, persistent kindness, and unwavering non-violence.  

I hope we can all find the sisu within us needed to make ourselves and others great human beings.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

A Lesson on Diversity

Diversity: a state of variety among persons, places, and things.

When I was in high school, some students and faculty started a club called the Welcoming Diversity Club.  The purpose of this club was to reach out to all members of the student body in an effort to bridge any cultural gaps between groups of students.   This club focused on creating an organization full of people from different races, backgrounds, cultures, etc.  Groups like the Welcoming Diversity Club are great opportunities for us to remember that we live in a world full of people that cover the spectrum in terms of skin color, eye color, hair color, height, weight, language, eating habits, drinking habits, recreational practices, religions, socioeconomic status, and on goes the list.  

My point for mentioning this is that while I live in a country that seems to pride itself on its diversity, and while I profess a faith and claim a church that is supposed to accept all people regardless of life circumstances and cultural backgrounds, I can't help but look around myself and notice a whole lot of the same thing.  This "same thing" in my case is primarily an all-white, middle class society.  While this is not bad in an of itself by any means, I sometimes find myself wondering where I might find a larger Spirit of diversity.  Before reading further, take a minute to think about a normal week for you.  Is there a majority of people who look, act, and dress a certain way?  Is there a clear minority of people who look, act, and dress a certain way?  How does this make you feel?  Ok, now you can keep reading.

Well, last week, I found one such place that may be the best source of social diversity I have ever seen: the Department of Motor Vehicles.  I made this trip to the DMV in order to get new license plates for my car.  In the four hours that I had to wait to accomplish my task for the day, I had quite a bit of time to take in my surroundings.  What I saw (other than an inefficient way of doing business) were a couple hundred people ranging in all of the diversity criteria mentioned in the first paragraph.  Some folks kept to themselves (as I did) while others made conversation with each other to pass the time.  These interactions were encouraging to see, I must say.  However, as I continued to gaze upon this extremely diverse crowd, my intrigue turned more toward dismay.  I realized how unfortunate it is that it takes a place like the DMV and the necessity for people to have ID's, Driver's Licenses, and vehicle registrations to gather people together from all walks of life.  Shouldn't my church be a place where I see this diversity?  How about my neighborhood or local grocery store?  I mean, sure there are exceptions to this situation, but on the whole, in my daily goings-on, I see way more people that look like me than not.  Why is this?  Why in the year 2013 is much of our society still divided according to class and culture rather than united in spite of those things?  If God created all of us with equal love, then why is there seemingly so much lack of inclusion among different social/cultural groups?

I wish I had the answers to these questions.  However, I do not.  All I have is all that any of us can have and that is a heart of love and compassion for our fellow humans.  I am very thankful that Pope Francis seems to be encouraging all people regardless of their belief systems to care for God's creation and one another.  If we can honestly try to extend ourselves outside of our comfort zones and diversify our lives to include others not like ourselves, then we will make some headway.  I'd like to think that this headway will look a lot better than the scene at the DMV.  Haha.  I guess this just goes to show that even the local DMV, while both dismal and frustrating, is not above the ability of the Spirit to work in our lives and teach us something about the joy that comes from the love that God has for all people.

Throughout the next week, I'd like to challenge you to be extra cognizant of the people around whom you find yourself in every situation.  Do you notice a trend?  Reflect on this for a while and see what the Spirit has to tell you about things.  

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.