So here I am finally getting around
to blogging again! I have the best intentions of blogging every week but then
life happens and before I know it, it has been over a month since my last blog
post. Oh well so goes life. Since I actually have a ton of things on my brain
I've been wanting to blog about I figured I would write on a bunch of little
things rather than one big blog (Kind of like a 7 quick takes blog, except it
is not Friday and I feel like I would be breaking some sort of unspoken blogger
rule calling this a 7 quick takes on a Monday). However, this won't be too
quick, so grab a cup of coffee, a beer, or a glass of Whiskey and read on my
friends!
----1----
I have begun to settle into my 9th
year of teaching. This would be my 11th year had I not taken two years off to
get my Masters. I still can't get over the fact that it has been 10 years since
I first moved to Wichita and started teaching at Bishop Carroll. It is weird
that I have spent most of my young adult life here. To think that 10 years ago
I was not happy to be here and even mad at God for bringing me here and now I
love it here and am so thankful God brought me here. I can honestly say I teach
at one of the best Catholic Schools in the nation and have been blessed to be a
part of so many students’ lives. I don't know if I will be here the rest of my
life but I can say that this diocese and Bishop Carroll have played an indispensable
part in my formation as a man and a teacher. When I think about the last 10
years, I can't help but think about the quote from Mother Teresa, "If you
want to make God laugh tell Him your plans."
----2----
Sophia is awesome! I LOVE being a
Dad! It is crazy how much life is changing. She is getting to be so big. Not to
mention she is already trying to crawl. She is not being successful yet but I'm
sure it is coming. She is able to get on all fours but then when she attempts
to crawl she face plants and doesn't get anywhere. I can't even believe it has
been 4 and a half months since she was born. In some weird way it is hard to
remember life without her.
----3----
I am so tiered of politics. I am
especially tired of Catholics interpreting Catholic teaching in a way that
helps than sleep at night; rather than interpreting it correctly. We are
Catholics first and Americans second, period! I'm tired of Catholics trying to
justify voting for Obama. We as Catholics cannot vote for him, end of
discussion!
----4----
I had a friend e-mail me this last Friday.
It is by a professor at Benedictine College. I think it quite nicely summarizes
the way we are called to live. I really needed this last week:
5 tips for living an awesome life
Dr. Mulholland
1. Believe that the sacraments work.
Really. Base your journey to God, beleaguering marathon that it is, on the pit
stops that He himself designed and placed throughout your day, week and year.
Live the liturgical seasons as real events with real graces to harvest in order
to live out the unique role that you have in God’s plan. Live knowing that God
wants you happy, weak sinner that you are, because He loves you as a child, and
has given you a brother in Christ, who in turn has shared with you a mother in
Our Lady. Live in awe of those holy men and women, named and unnamed, who did
so much to hand down the Catholic Faith to us. Feel part of something great and
carry it on.
2. Find out what God wants you to do
with your life. Don’t over stress about it, but don’t put it off. Tim McGraw,
in his song “My Next 30 Years” (in his case, from age 30 to 60) includes among
his goals, “…figure out just what I’m doing here.” I would suggest a more
aggressive timetable. The perennial question? How do I know what I’m doing is
what God wants? Tough one. Two clues: it doesn’t contradict his plan and you
feel deeply fulfilled doing it. First prize, a vocation. Second prize, a
profession. Third prize, a career. Fourth prize, a job. In your creation is
your calling. Do what fulfills the good qualities God has given you, and which
puts them at the service of others, for their betterment.
3. Think of that vocation in wide
terms. Your first task is to be God’s creature and adopted child. You live that
out as a priest, religious, married or single person. How you make a living
should not rule how you live your life. But have education enough to do both.
Let your professional life be at the service of your family life, and in turn
at the service of God. Concentric circles pulling toward the center will unify
your life. A pie graph where each section contends for your personality and
focus will pull you apart and leave you unhappy.
4. Build community. Surround
yourself with people who share your deepest loves. And make sure those loves
are worthy of that depth. Don’t take too many things too seriously, but take
very seriously the things that deserved to be so taken. Build others up
constantly. Shed anger and petty grudges as soon as possible. Show the people
you love that you love them. Often. Prefer to visit people rather than places.
Never be too busy to make new friends. Carve time out of your week to reach out
to others. Other people’s happiness is so your business!
5. Savor things. Don’t escape from
things (drugs, alcohol, superficiality), escape into them (poetry, nature, good
conversation, good music, beer in bottles, not cans.) Take walks. Think thoughts.
Ponder the goodness of others more often than their faults. Make and take
jokes. Laugh. See each day as a gratuitous mystery in which God has hidden
Himself in your path in a million ways. Never tire of finding Him in them, be
they joys, pains, petty annoyances or your team making the playoffs.
Bottom line: The real you is saint
you. Who you truly are is who you are in God’s eyes. And who you are in his
eyes is who you can be each day by combining the best of you, little though
that be, and the infinity of his greatness.
Because… after all, the only real
criterion of an awesome life is if it was lived in such a way that it merits
true awesomeness hereafter. Listen and play along to the part you have in the
symphony of the universe. The true symphony is still to come. May our lives,
under God’s grace and direction, resound a worthy overture.
----5----
I am completely addicted to playing
Ticket to Ride lately. My wifeand I played it just the two of us quite a bit over
the summer. Now we keep trying to find excuses to get together with other
friends to play it or teach them how to play.
----6----
God is so good to us. I am
constantly amazed at how He takes care of us. Every time I start to stress out
financially about something He makes it work for us. At the beginning of the
summer the Augustine Institute didn't have a job for me as a TA anymore and
then along came Jim Beckman and offered me a position working under him with
FORMED. This summer when we started to stress about the budget along came Fr.
Hoisington at St. Mark's and offered me a paid position teaching Junior and
Senior PSR two Wednesday's a month. Mary Beth is still able to substitute teach
two days a week and we have been blessed with free child care thus far. I
honestly believe this is because we have been faithful with Stewardship. I have
started lectoring at our parish and will be helping teach RCIA this next year.
We give of our treasure to the parish and help support two FOCUS missionaries.
This is the first thing we take out of our paychecks. To a family that makes
what we do and has the bills we have this hurts but I can honestly say we have
never gone without what we need. I am amazed at how the budget works and comes
together every month but it does. Every good gift truly comes from God. When we
place our trust in Him and put Him in control of everything, including our
finances He provides in powerful ways.
----7----
My prayer life is finally getting back on track again. I am
slowly getting back in the swing of it and finding moments for silence. It has
seriously been a challenge to figure out any sort of routine much less a prayer
routine with a baby. Finding time to pray became a real challenge when Sophia was
born and I seriously missed my silent time with Jesus but didn't know how to
find a groove with it, especially this summer. With school starting I have made
it a point to go to mass every day and simply take at least 20-30 minutes of
one of my planning periods to go to the chapel and pray no matter how stressed
I am or how much I have to do. I am making prayer a priority again and I am
noticing a huge difference in my life just from returning to it in the last two
weeks. I am starting to find that true peace and joy in my life again that I
didn't even realize was missing.