Like The Father

This is the year of Mercy, declared by Pope Francis as a special year to embrace the Mercy of God, and express it as a gift to others.

God's Fatherhood is a mystery to all of us, but it must be inexplicable to those who have never had the selfless love of a father, and have yearned to fill that hole, however possible.
We are wired to be fathered and it's human fatherhood that gives us a tiny glimpse of what our Heavenly Father is to us. No one is perfect, but it falls to the dads to model the love, mercy and justice of God to their children. Without this earthly model, a child is left with only part of the picture of the goodness and greatness of Our Father in Heaven.

No wonder satan has an agenda against fatherhood. No wonder he seeks to tempt men away from the Sacrament of Matrimony that binds spouses to each other and provides the best place for the nurturing of children. No wonder he blinds men to the Grace and dignity of Marriage and the raising of children, and tempts them to selfishness and sexual sin. He knows that the family will defeat him, and that fathers are the most influential in building a deep and abiding faith in their children. Mom tells you to say your prayers, work hard, be mannerly and treat people well, but dad shows you. He is the one that the children watch to see if they really have to do all that mom says.

I am reading a book called "It Was Me All Along" by Andie Mitchell. It's the story of a girl who, when she was little, saw the devolution of her family, in large part because of her father's alcoholism, and how she came to use food to fill the deep need that she had for wholeness. She developed a relationship with food, in an effort to find the comfort of family. I am reading this and thinking about how many children must be going through this, and then this evening I came across this video, and it just broke my heart.

We're all the sum of the Father's love for us, but we are only children, that can only respond to what we are given. How it must break His heart to see His little ones led to despair because they have no one to hold them, teach them, and love them unconditionally.
We are called to be merciful as the Father is merciful, but someone has to show the children the Mercy of The Father.

On Fire for LIFE!

Our Good Shepherd Youth group was so blest to host a wonderful evening with Praise and Worship music by Mathias Michael, our very own recording artist, and an inspiring talk by Clare Daly of Generation Life! 

This event was truly given to us by the Holy Spirit to help us prepare for the upcoming March For Life in Washington DC. Many of our youth will be attending.

Mathias started us off by asking everyone to stand and really ask the Holy Spirit to join us. The music was a mix of well-known P&W and some new songs that we didn't know. I was really taken by the way Mathias led the group in both song and prayer. The evening really was a prayer.

After a short break for snacks and stretching, we sat and prepared to listen to a multimedia presentation produced by Clare and Generation Life.
I met Clare Daly at Camp Veritas a couple of years ago. She is just a beautiful, intelligent young woman who is devoting herself to spreading the Gospel of Life. Her organization brings the message of the dignity of human life, at all stages, to groups all over the country. Her talk was just such a reminder of who we are in Creation, and what we are called to be for Christ.

Next up, are looking forward to the March For Life in DC!

The Lies of Our Times

I think one of the biggest lies that our culture has perpetrated on it's youth is the idea that:
 "You can do anything if you just want it bad enough!"
How many times, in our youth and school years, did we hear "It's only a matter of making up your mind. If you want to, you can be an astronaut, an engineer, or even the president!" OK well, considering the caliber of recent administrations, anyone probably can be president.
The question is, why are we telling children that they can do anything, and at the same time diagnosing them with every kind of learning problem, mental health issue and personality disorder we can think of? You got your label? Great! Now, tell us what you want to do with your life and we will find some way to accommodate your limitations and get you the help you need so that we can shove your square little hiney into that round hole. Why not just go find a square hole?


There are people that can run a marathon in record time. There are people that can run a marathon in a day. There are people that can run. I am not one of them. I can tell myself that I can all day long, but I can't. I have bad hips and knees.
I can't do higher math. That's OK. I get to a certain point and it starts to sound like Swahili. I think I could learn Swahili, but there is something in my brain that inhibits my ability to learn math. I don't think God is disappointed, after all, He made me this way. He obviously had a plan and higher Math wasn't a part of it.

Tim would have loved to have been a pilot. He has the aptitude and tons of desire, but he also has terrible eyesight and vertigo. Fact.
The things that we can't do don't define us, they direct us toward the things that we actually have been given, our gifts.
Telling students that they can "do anything" really doesn't mean "do anything". It leaves them feeling like they are expected to shoot for Wall street or the White House and then if that doesn't work out they can teach or become a landscaper. What if they already know that they would LOVE teaching or landscaping? Are their gifts less worthy because they didn't attempt the highest peak and shoot for the top first? What's wrong with just shooting for the best version of yourself from the beginning?

What happens in a classroom when a person with intellectual or physical limitations hears the teacher telling the class, "If you want it, you can do it!", whatever "it" is? What if you just can't? It's OK not to be that high academic achiever or athlete. What's not OK is to drive yourself for the dreams of someone else or because "it" has to be attempted before you can settle down and find where you fit. If you want it, try it. If you can't get there, try something else. Life is too short to buy into other people's ideas of what your life should look like. Follow your dreams, within the bounds of your capabilities, but don't beat yourself up because you have to modify the dream. Try, yes. Try as hard as you can, and when you feel that you have tried yourself out, try something else. And don't bring up Rudy Ruteger because he tried as hard as he could, and he did play one awesome football game, but then went out and did what he's really good at, motivating people.

We do live in a land of opportunity, but one of the most beautiful things about our country is what the old-timers called "Yankee Ingenuity". Genius is not defined by IQ, but by the ability to find, develop and use the gifts that we have been given to their true purpose. You might be a math genius and win a Nobel prize for Science. Awesome. You might be a literary genius, and write a Nobel prize-winning novel. Fantastic. What if you are a people genius? You might not win a Nobel prize, but your contribution is no less brilliant. You have to ability to motivate and move others in ways that a math genius could never figure out. We need you!

Don't get caught up in the lie that you can do anything if you just want it bad enough, because while you are trying to figure out how to achieve the impossible dream, you might miss the thing that makes you truly happy. It's not enough to want it, it has to be meant for you, and the One who made you is the One who has the perfect plan for you. Ask Him, He'll tell you!