Expect the Extraordinary

Can an idea change the way you live your life? I didn't use to think it could - so dramatically anyway. I've always thought of myself to be a relatively positive person, but when I heard this wisdom from a priest in his homily over the Christmas break, I really let it sink in. Now, this view on life is a motto that I live by daily. Not on my own, of course. I don't simply expect extraordinary things to happen for no reason. I expect them to happen because of Jesus Christ.

I truly do see a lot of things in a different light than I would say most people that I come across. I am honestly in wonder at the very basic functions of the human body - all of the chemical reactions and messages that have to go just right for me to bend my arm, all happening at an unbelievable speed. Anyway this new faith-based motto has really changed the way that I approach life. Do I fall into despair sometimes, of course, I'm human after all; but striving for true hope and faith that God is in complete control gives me such freedom to enjoy the pleasures that life has to offer. Are there issues in our world that seem hopeless and lost? YES. But that is only because we focus on things have been in the past and we become content with the status quo and for whatever reason decide that it's not worth fighting for because it's hopeless. Challenge: try. If there is something that you would like to see changed in your life, try. This is going to be a little preachy, but be the change you want to see in the world. Every day, we are presented with opportunities to make a difference in our lives and in the lives of others - even if its something small. And actually, I believe those small, everyday things to be so much more important because they add up...QUICK!

Well, I hope that others can find a motto that can do for them what "Expect the Extraordinary" has done for me. God bless.

Leadership Escalator

This weekend I went to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life. First of all...WOW!!! Half of a million people gathered together to march onto Capitol Hill and in front of the Supreme Court to protest the injustice of abortion - towards babies and women. I'm going to go into an experience from the weekend, but first I just quickly want to encourage anyone who desires a culture of life for our country...there is hope and we are going to win with perseverance, dedication, and prayer. The tides are turning!

During our time in D.C. we had to ride the Metro in order to get around. We were exiting with a large crowd of people and I fell behind my group and so I was weaving between people trying to catch up. I got to the escalator and realized that the people I knew were at the front of the line about halfway up already. There was another escalator void of anyone that wasn't moving. I decided that I could catch up to them if I went up the one that nobody was on. When I got even with my group, our eyes met and apparently that signaled the competitive green light in my head and I started running up the escalator. The race was on and the people from my group also started sprinting. Well I got second place...I'm not disappointed...theirs was moving. Anyway, a little later on while we were on another bus someone was talking about it and mentioned the crowd of people that were running behind me - people who were not with our group. I didn't realize it while it was happening but apparently, I had provoked a whole crowd to run with reckless abandon up the escalator.
Now, here's the lesson that I'm taking out of this: our actions affect others. Brand new revelation, right?! Well, I just got to thinking how we can all find opportunities to lead others in our lives. Live out what you believe in your heart to be true and be in tune to how others respond. I've got room for improvement in both aspects. You never know how people are going to react. I was not trying to inspire people to sprint up the escalator, but they followed. Be aware of your actions and strive to make them worth following.

Miracles

Hailing from Denver, I bleed orange and blue for my Broncos. The past few seasons have been rough for the Mile High City, and this season started off looking like another difficult one. Then, the Broncos played the Miami Dolphins, a game which would become the first of now a series of inexplicable comeback victories led by Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is not your typical professional quarterback. There are countless critics who have compiled a list as long as an ancient scroll of all of the things that Tebow cannot do as a quarterback. Tebow is capable of a couple of vital things however, he plays the entire game with a passion that few have ever seen; he inspires his teammates to play harder - even seasoned veterans such as Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins; and with him as the starter, everybody on that team believes that they WILL win. Football is a team sport and that is what I think a lot of people are missing in all of this. People think that games are won solely by people like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Ray Lewis all alone. They are all terrific players, but take the other 10 guys that are out on the field and none of those men would be capable of anything.

Here are a couple of motifs that come to mind when I present a comparison for Tim Tebow.

The first: Moses. Moses was illiterate and could not speak well. God chose Moses to confront Pharoah and lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Imagine all of the things that critics came up with in regards to what Moses was incapable of. And yet, he was successful in leading the Hebrews out of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land.

The second: Men need other men to become the best they can be. I, along with Campus Ministry and the aid of another fellow student, Frank Kane, are currently forming a men's retreat for the spring. One of the topics is male-to-male relationships. In general, men relate to sports very well so while I've been hearing all of this negative talk about all of the things that Tim Tebow cannot do, I think of all of the things that I cannot do. But then I realize everything that I am capable of with the help of the men around me. Imagine what we would all do if we worked together with a common vision and did everything that needed to be done in order to achieve our aspirations together. Do you know what would happen? Miracles. Ordinary people doing ordinary things together can produce extraordinary results that don't seem humanly possible. Miracles.

Why Worry?

I'm supposed to do a short presentation about my "Career Mission" and how to market myself in that career. Honestly, I'm stuck on this one. If you're like me (and arguably 99.99999% of university students) you haven't got the slightest clue what you want to do with the rest of your life.

It's definitely good to have direction in life. And I think that I am in a great spot. I'm not sitting around waiting for life to pass by me with an opportunity. I am actively searching out and learning about things that interest me. For example, I'm trying desperately to get an internship with a sports performance facility. Am I going to be in sports performance for the rest of my life (or anything of the like)? Maybe, maybe not. From a handful of very respectable people I have spoken with, I don't expect to get it all right immediately out of school. Through my experience, I have found that the only thing that I can do is make decisions based on the information I have. Pretty simple idea, right? Well, how often do we worry about things that are out of our control? I would contend...too often. Yes, it's important to look to the future and try to plan, but I know that I have had situations of indecisiveness in which I stayed on the fence between two options because I was dwelling so much on what I thought that outcomes were going to be.

So, in a nutshell I guess my lesson for the week would be to live in the present. Let tomorrow worry about itself.

My Own Path

I am going to make a phone call tomorrow. This phone call will last less than five minutes. It will determine the next two years of my life.

FOCUS called me on Thursday offering me a position as a missionary. I asked them to give me the weekend for final discernment. I have never been more certain of anything. One year ago, I never would have thought that I would be doing something like this. I figured that I would leave college, get a job and start living life on my own for a while. Well, there's my plans and there's God's plans. He seems to get His way a lot. His way is undoubtedly what is best, so I guess that's alright. It's definitely a leap of faith as I will be fundraising my living salary. It will be a great lesson in dependence on others. I know that I depend on others right now, I certainly will for the next two years, and I cannot see that changing anytime soon in my life. We all need someone.

My roommate just walked in and said, "Seventeen days." Seventeen days until he graduates; a looming destiny for me in a few short months. Life is about to change drastically. All of the people that I have come to know and love over the last four years are going to go their separate ways out into the world. It's no easy time. The world, as it is today, feeds into mundane lifestyles of clocking in and out of a job day in and day out like machines. There are two few opportunities (noticed/taken) to live out loud. I, for one, am determined not to fall into a monotonous life. If there is one thing that I can do each day to serve as a light for another person, a light that gives them hope that there is still pure good and joy, I am more than happy to do it. I will humbly admit that I know that I will miss opportunities due to self-absorption - not that I want that, but everyone has their off days and I am no different. I'm human. But I think that's what it means to have hope. I realize where I am right now, and I am very much simply content with life; however, the hope that I have is that where I am is not the peak of my existence. "Enjoy college. These are the best years of your life!" I certainly hope not! They have been formative, there's not doubt about that. And I will miss the many memories which have come out of my time here, but I am simply turning the pages to a new chapter in which new memories will be made. Joy will continue to be an aspiration and while I will miss my college years, I shall not dwell on them so much that I miss opportunities to form new memories. Life goes to fast to sit around thinking too much about the way that things used to be. John 10:10 "I came that they might have life and have it to the full." That is a gift, and I do not plan to waste it.

So, the next two years, I will be sharing Christ's love on whatever college campus I am placed. That could be anywhere across the country. Hearts will be changed, lives will be formed, the world will be set ablaze.

Drop Your Nets

I like to consider myself a pretty spontaneous person. I do have structure, but I also allow for a lot of flexibility in my schedule. My nickname for this weekend - "Gumbi."

Over the course of this semester, I have been considering applying to be a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionary after I graduate. Tuesday night, I realized that interviews in Kansas City are the same weekend that I leave for Nicaragua on a service trip for spring break. Oh yea, I'm going on a service trip to Nicaragua for spring break. Anyway, at that point I didn't know what other weekend I would be able to go. The next morning, I got a text message from my friend Marcus who is a missionary asking if I was up. It was 8:30am. "What could he possibly have to talk to me about at 8:30 in the morning?" He text me back and said that it was really crazy so he was going to call me. The next second he was on the phone and he says, "Can you go to Denver this weekend for interviews?" I sat in silence for about a minute. "...I'm not going to say no." There was a ton going on this weekend on campus here in KC. Bible study, birthday party, fraternity event, service, my friend had two tickets to see the Broncos play the Chiefs (win!). I don't know why, but that afternoon I told him that I could make it happen. That meant that I had to fill out an application the same day because it was due at midnight, along with three references by the Friday. It was a lot, but thankfully my friends came through and got them in. By midnight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning it was a reality that I would be leaving for Denver in 23 hours!

Matthew 4:19-20 "He said to them, 'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." That's exactly how I felt when I said that I could make the trip out to Denver. My decision certainly did not disappoint either. The Holy Spirit did work on my heart this weekend to the point where at the beginning I was only going to keep an option open for after I graduate; now, assuming I get the call, this is my number one choice. Yes, I will forfeit the opportunity to go on Survivor. In a heartbeat.
I met a ton of great people this weekend. I truly hope that it is not the last time that our paths cross. It was just so incredible to experience again a group of peers pursuing the same relationship with Jesus and striving to become great. St. Catherine of Siena said, "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." There was a blazing wildfire this weekend in Denver.

That's the weekend in a nutshell. Gotta love spontaneity! If you follow avidly or just happen upon this entry, I would ask for your prayers as I continue to discern God's will for me for the next couple of years of my life.

Protect the Dignity of Women

If you recall last week's post, I had been dealing with my own passive approach to confrontation. I had a dream that I was sitting around a table with some people who were talking disrespectfully about women. In my dream, I slammed my fists on the table, yelled that I couldn't stand it anymore, and stormed out of the room. It was one of those incredibly realistic dreams where it feels like it actually happened; consequently, I woke up very empowered, feeling like I had finally made a stern and firm stance. However, I couldn't help but think that that wouldn't be the correct reaction in that situation. Certainly, my passive approach hadn't been working, but was I going to get anywhere by throwing a fit either? I decided not. There has to be a middle ground. I have to be able to take a hard stance with a serious tone rather than in a joking manner without throwing a child-like tantrum.

I think that I found it! The reality scene was a little different but I was encountered by a similar conversation where the dignity of women was being completely disregarded. In the moment, I simply made a hurried effort at changing the subject. "So that robot that won Jeopardy, that's pretty impressive, right?" Success. That was only the beginning. Afterwards in the car I asked a few of the guys who were there what they thought about the incident. Though I was surprised at some of the responses, I was very glad to have been able to have civil, diplomatic conversation about it. And I definitely made my stance known in a very firm way - with a plan of action to change the way that men treat women (at least on a small scale for now). But that was exactly what I wanted. Effective change doesn't typically happen on a large scale right away. I wanted to start with a small group of men; a small group that I can try to influence who will then hopefully take it to heart so that if they run into the same thing down the road with other men, they will have the courage and the knowledge to recognize and put a stop to it.

Who are the important women in your life? How would you react if someone was hurting them? I present a challenge to any of the men who happen to read this. When you see a woman being mistreated, stand up. Protect her like you would your sister or your mother.