The good Lord has reminded me recently these past couple of days of this verse that has brought me a lot of encouragement and strength in the past. It's one of my favorite passages, and lately it's been coming into my head... hmmmm....
Matthew 6:33
"But strive first for the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
In struggles, in defeat, in sorrow, confusion and all the rest... we can hold onto this. In order to do His will, we have to strive for His Kingdom first as that will allow us to do His will.
BACK TRACK... to mid July, 2009? ( Middle of mission-ish)
Location: Saskatoon
I had walked back to our wonderful Munroe House from Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and Confession one morning. I felt renewed and ready to take on the world, one might say. I walked up the "three death stairs" as I liked to call them (for obvious reasons) to only receive a big hug from my beautiful house mate and sister Ese (not my sister by blood, but by Christ). She asked me how Adoration went and I told her how I felt renewed and how I had a really great confession, etc. When she heard I went to confession, she looked at me with such awe and exclaimed "YOU COULD GO TO HEAVEN RIGHT NOW!!" I think she was almost jealous of me, but in a good way. I could go straight to Heaven right then... unless of course I had committed some form of sin on my walk home, but I quickly cancelled out that possibility seeing as it only took 48 seconds to walk from Lourdes Parish to the Munroe House and I was not yelling at God for the interesting summer weather or anything... in fact I think I may have been skipping my way home...
I had to laugh a bit because Ese is just so darn adorable for saying that and because I know that she truly believes this with all her heart and I wish I could have the same amazing desire that she has! But I was taken aback briefly as I tried to absorb what she had just said.... I could've gone to Heaven right then! I had never thought about it that way. This brought me back to that verse... was I striving for His Kingdom? Or was it something I thought of as something far far farrrrr away? Why did I just go to Mass, confession and Adoration? In my daily living, am I striving for His Kingdom? Would I have wanted to go to Heaven then, or did I think I had more of my life to live? I can say honestly now, that at that moment... the first thought in my head was.... "ummm...ya... I want to go to Heaven right now.... not."
stop.
WHY THE HECK WOULDN'T I WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN?!! WHAT AM I SAYING?! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S TODAY OR TOMORROW OR IN 40 YEARS FROM NOW, IT'S NOT IN MY TIME, BUT HIS!!! WHY ON EARTH WOULD I NOT WANT TO BE WITH MY LORD AND SAVIOUR RIGHT NOW?!?!!
( what went on in my head when this happened )
This passage reminds me of that moment from the summer when God was asking me..."Are you striving for My Kingdom? Won't you come?!" I was living not for Him as much, but for me and my life.... me me me.
There was something holding me back from having that desire to be at the heart of Jesus. To encounter Him in such a way where my desire would always be His Kingdom. The desire to leave this life of exile at His time and to be with Him forever. Something was saying... you have time... there's no rush.
BAM!! That's a lie! Satan is so good at lying to us, he's a jerk.
WHERE IS OUR SENSE OF URGENCY?!?
Heaven will be the moment when I encounter my Lord within my soul. So, whatever I do here on earth must be for His Kindgom because His Kindgom lies within my soul, not tomorrow, not a year from now... today! His Kingdom lies within my soul today, and what am I doing for His Kingdom today?!!
***
I've noticed that I did these a lot in this post: ??!!?!?!?!!!
I was trying to emphasize either yelling or just really big points in the post. Or both. You decide.
Back to you Matty!
p.s. - In 26 days, Matt and I will be reunited which means most likely on December 31st at approximately 8:00pm (Winnipeg Time) Matt and I will be all dressed up fancy and getting a picture taken of yours truly for the blog. Good news right!?!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Defeating The Night
I half-stumbled off the formerly jam-packed bus, onto the suburban streets I grew up on. Deeply engrossed in reading a book, my mind was swampy, or perhaps cloudy, just like the neighbourhood I had just stepped foot into. The familiar orange foggy glow of the streetlights made sense on this humid, late-November night in Nova Scotia. They were as welcome and known to me as so many friends, though disconnected, just like many of those friends.
But I wasn't dwelling on any trials regarded friends, or much of anything. My mind was stirring, thinking, dwelling. It was truly being lifted heavenward, not by anything I was doing, but by the strains of music that I had recently stumbled upon. Words of God's seeking out of man, and ultimately, Christ's sacrifice. After a weary day, I dreamily walked up the street to my house, but part of me wanted to fall to my knees; collapse, and just recognize.
* * *
Although I'm not a huge fan of popular clichés, I do think that this East Coast Post could be the result of trying to 'strike while the iron is hot'. To be completely honest, I just felt very moved to write right here and now, while the thoughts are still fresh in my mind. Whereas my last post (after the very-worth reading Stilly-entry on Ste. Therese de Lisieux) was very much a collection of thoughts that had stirred and brewed in my mind for weeks and weeks, this is purely inspired by the events mostly of the last week, and in all honesty, less than that.
* * *
My perspective last Saturday morning was not too far off from my current mood. A broken person, but more importantly on that day, a sleepy person. I was taking part in a Catholic Men's Retreat, just helping out with music, in a very small way. Most of the day involved listening to speakers, and then discussing and sharing in small groups. I was given the freedom (and the encouragement) to join such a group. Being easily the youngest one there, I didn't necessarily jump at the chance, but I joined with one such group.
We were faced with a very relevant question, and I heard some (from what I believe) irrelevant answers. The question was posed: what can we do as a Church to get more people to come? Everyone obviously wants a full church, at least in that crowd, for whatever varying reasons. But it wasn't long before an older gentleman in the group to pipe up that the Church was 'a church of men', and that we needed to have married priests, and female priests before anything could really change. This thought has knocked around the table by a few like-minded men, and I was part of a group that was pretty unimpressed by this typical answer.
I was annoyed. I thought, Does this guy even realize what he's saying? Does he really want the Church built up, or does he just want his super-liberal friends back in the pews with him? I wasn't being very loving, by any means. Thankfully, I didn't really snap on him, or any of the other agreeing men around the table. That session ended, but not before our table representative exclaimed that our table wanted female priests. I tried to keep my head low...
I didn't stay with that table all day; in fact, I was shifted to another one before the next session. This one had a few more like-minded guys, but the best way to describe them was seeking, good men. There wasn't always agreement, but I saw God working in them.
After being confronted by this surge of heterodoxy, I stayed astonished, but I more or less put the time at my tables in the back of my mind; just one more encounter with arguments that put me on edge. They weren't men with malice. They were just men saying what they thought was right, regardless of the state of their hearts when saying that. I can't judge the state of their hearts.
About half a week later, I was sitting at the table for my campus' Catholic Society, which was placed in the Student Union Building at my university. Typically, it's a meeting place for studies and for students who are a part of the society, but sometimes other people come and strike up conversations with available, faithful Catholics.
An older man, maybe in his late 50s or early 60s, came up to the table with a purpose, and studied the name of the society closely. After mulling over his thoughts for a time (he may have even scratched his chin during this pondering period), he asked the table at large a question.
"What's the society's position on Bishop Lahey?"
Having a regular Joe or Jane ask a Nova Scotian Catholic about the former bishop of Antigonish and man currently at the centre of a child pornography investigation is not all that unusual anymore, at least in the last two months. One person volunteered that the group had no real position on it. I mean, we all are hurt by it, of course. It seemed a little silly that he'd even ask that...
He followed this up by wondering aloud if having female priests would help. This took the table aback, as there seemed to be very little correlation between the two thoughts. He then asked one of us sitting at the table (a girl, no less) if they thought women had the abilities to do what men did in the priestly vocation. After being pointed to the Church for the reasons why, he came close to repeating some haunting words, tiptoeing around saying that it was 'a church of men', while meaning that God wasn't a part of Catholic teaching. I piped up that of course God guided the Church. He proceeded to have an 'a-ha!' moment, 'pointing out' that God was, in fact, also a man.
A couple people couldn't really contain their laughter. It seemed plain and silly that this man would say that an ultimately genderless God was a man like I was, or any other person of my gender. Yes, God revealed Himself to us in masculine ways (like Jesus Christ, true God and true man, as well as the Father and the Son), so it makes sense that we talk about Him as He has revealed Himself.
He then 'cleverly' (?) pointed out that many women are calling God 'she', and that we should "think about that". Uh, what? Over a billion people in the world are Muslims, should we just become practitioners of Islam because of the numbers? What the heck?
Who was this guy, coming up to the table, and floating out all these points, and urging us to think about things, while he invested no thought in what we were telling him. It was bizarre to me!
None of the men in the previous stories were really seeking answers, in the traditional way. They were no open-minded, or thoughtful. They were downright close-minded and, in some cases, rude. Boo!
I could just stay like this, disliking the words of these men, and not having a heart for them or where they were in life. But it took the once-self-proclaimed 'greatest band in the world' to help me get to a better conclusion.
* * *
Since beginning to listen to U2, I've known they were Christian, to some extent. The language used in much of their music was definitely religious, and definitely had Christ in mind. So when my Astro-twin and chaplain handed me Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 by Steve Stockman, I was intrigued.
After rushing to my bus to go home, I popped in my fitted earbuds, put U2's discography on shuffle, turned it down a bit, and cracked open this book. I haven't read much in a while, so I was interested to feed this part of me.
But the situations and positions in the book were strikingly familiar. No, Bono wasn't advocated that Latin-Rite priests be allowed to marry, nor was The Edge preaching about the necessity of female priests, but there was something that I had heard spoken, not so much in words, but underneath the words.
Someone recently told me not to just listen to what people are saying, but why they're saying it. The men at the retreat? Well, they had a fundamental misunderstanding of a number of things in the Church. The sacraments, the priesthood, the Eucharist, etc. If they had understood these things, maybe they would understand what the Church taught a little better. I'm not coming down on them, but they did lack this. They misunderstood what the Church said.
The man at the table? Well, he could've kept walking. I'm sure dozens of students walked by the table, saw that it was the Catholic society, and that they could move along. But this guy wanted to talk. Something stirred up in him. And he had a fundamental misunderstanding of who God was. God isn't someone we can make into who we want Him to be; God is so beyond that, so beyond what we want.
* * *
Upon stepping off the bus, I had just read these words of U2, and thought of the thoughts of the men who had spoken before me. So where did I fit in? All these thoughts from all these places that seemed off to me, what was it? What did I believe?
U2 had said things I disagreed with, but a youthful Bono said something that gets my heart across: "Judeo Christianity is about the idea that God is interested in you–as opposed to a god is interested in you. This was a radical thought: that God who created the universe might be interested in me ... It is the most extraordinary thought." (Stockman, p. 17).
God is seeking us out. But more than that, religion, faith, Christianity, the Catholic Church; they're not maladies that take away from life, or get it wrong; they're the solution! They're the freedom! I was listening to Matt Maher's song, Christ is Risen, and dwelling on this truth. God has freed us. We aren't enslaved anymore. God is freedom, and His Church offers us this deep, amazing freedom to come into a relationship with this God, Who is interested in you; Who is interested in me! Amazing!
All these thoughts came together in my mind, and I felt compelled to share them with the web at large, and with readers of this Blog. I am so thankful, and caught up tonight. Wow.
God is good.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Do you believe in Love?
Thanks to Matt, I haven't written anything in awhile, so I feel super inadequate and inefficient when it comes to writing, being that I'm not in school right now, and not writing 10 page essays every week. I also feel super 'not-awesome' because well... Matt is an extraordinary writer, so I have to TRY and keep up. (shh... don't tell him I told you, he might get all self righteous and stuff)
oh..shoot... urhmmm...
SO, I just finished reading "I believe in Love" by Father Jean C.J. d'Elbée. (Amazing book, read it)
Let's type about that... shall we?
It's mentioned that; Jesus loves each of us to the point of foolishness on the Cross and the glory of the Resurrection.
I guess I'm writing about this because for the past while (since I wrote my last post) I've constantly been feeling inadequate, incompetent, insubstantial (a lot of 'ins') dry, failing... foolish. Even writing this post, I feel "in______ish.")
This sentence struck a chord with me because right now in my life, this state of being is constant almost everyday. To know and to have it repeated to me once again that my Saviour who died on the cross for me, was ALSO thought foolish. Not only in this action of being crucified for my sins, but also throughout His life... He loved to the point of foolishness, ALWAYS! How glorious!!! If only us lil'uns here on earth would do the same!
It's not that we can't love to the point of foolishness, it's that we choose not to. It's almost like we don't believe in the simple things like we don't FULLY believe in love. I get so caught up in my feelings of inadequacy that I forgot the simple things. I forget love. I forget that my weak and wobbling ways don't really matter. What matters is my love... am I being Christ to others? When we live in this way, all the things we do wrong or poorly become perfected because we've entrusted them to the King. Not only are they perfected, they are made beautiful.
It's so simple, but why is it so hard!? All our Lord asks of us is to simply believe in love and love to the point of foolishness!! We have the most perfect model of this kind of love... we have Jesus! St. Thérèse of Lisieux understood so beautifully this simplicity that our Lord desires for us! She not only understood it, she worked everyday at living it. She knew that we are NOTHING without Him and that all He wants is our YES!
...
I sat down to write this post not really knowing what to to talk about and this came out. Not as similar to Matt's blog as our first two posts, but alas, this will do! It's also not as long as Matt's post, but alas, I have Youth Group to run soon. Maybe also random-ish... but alas... my writing organization skills are not at their prime at this point in my life.
But I think, after typing out all my thoughts, I can conclude this brand spankin' new post with this...
it's okay to feel inadequate sometimes. It's also okay to BE inadequate and to fail. It's okay to be thought foolish or stupid. It doesn't matter because this is how Jesus lived and this is how He died. It is undeniable that we MUST strive to love in this way. We MUST believe in Love!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Realizations
The dangers of waiting so long to write a new sort of blog is that your mind can often get so full of ideas and plans and hopes and dreams that you can hardly come up with a good way to order written thoughts. As you may have guessed from this opening, I am suffering from precisely that problem. That's why this entry has the rather lacklustre title 'Realizations'. I briefly considered (just now) changing the title to 'Revelations', but I feel this blog is simply not epic enough to merit such a title. So we're doing a slightly not-so-exciting title in "Realizations'. That's not to say there's nothing good in it... Okay, I feel like I've almost buried this enough.
I can only blame myself, you can only blame me
As some readers may have noticed, there has been a considerable length of time between entries here. Stilly and I decided, for the most part, to alternate in blogging, and thus you can blame only me, really. I had school, work, schoolwork, and other responsibilities. I'm not about to pretend that I couldn't have at least TRIED to get writing this. But I'm not a professional opinions writer (I sort of was, for a little while), and I generally only write when I'm feeling inspired. But I have been inspired! A few times, at least.
All I want you to leave me is alone
I gotta say, I love taking refuge. I don't mean this in a pseudo-deep, oh-my-goodness-solitude-is-like-so-indie kind of way, but rather, just alone time. Right now, for instance, I have found an undisclosed location at Dalhousie from which to listen to live music on YouTube (check out CBC's Q for some Quality stuff!) and write. I won't finish this blog here, but it's still worth noting. Y'see, moments like this remind me that I can really take pleasure in the small things. Opening the window on a stormy night to hear the rain and have consolation in my comfort. Someone once told me that that was very St. Therese of me, enjoying the little things. At the moment, I didn't jump at that point, but now I'm thinking that's probably pretty close to being true. So I'm enjoying the little things right here, right now. There IS no other place I'd rather be... Well, that might not be true. I can think of a small city or two west of here that might fit me pretty well... Like, in Alberta.
Whatever you like
Something I've come to know about myself in the past little while (I find 'the past little while' a very good and very vague phrase) is that I really appreciate knowing the passions of others. I realized this when I had a sharp sense of joy after seeing a guy in class next to me looking up cars on internet forums, and another time when I saw a guy looking up European Football scores. People love things that I don't, and I find that very interesting. I remember a friend telling me about their sort-of-secret passion for tropical fish, and it added so much to the character of this person in my mind. And, for those at home, these small passions of mine include voracious news and blog consumption, as well as atmospheric guitar fills a la 'Bad' by U2.
You know it ain't nothin' to drop a coupla stacks on you
I love how on the Blogger editing bar, there's a tab that reads 'Monetize', as if I could just translate what I write into cold, hard cash.
All winter, we got carried
This is a thought that came to my mind over a month ago, at least, and has bounced around my head since a few months ago for sure. Upon flopping into my chair-tablet hybrid in one of my favourite classrooms of the HHAAB (Henry Hicks Academic Administration Building, but with an acronym like that, why would you NOT use it?), I conducted a lazy scan of the room. A young man, roughly my age, strolled into the room with an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt on. This would be unremarkable on most occasions, but on the front of the shirt was emblazoned 'MAKE LOVE NOT BABIES', which alarmed me to say the least. And yes, it's a real shirt, Google the phrase and 'Abercrombie' and it'll pop up. While this might be somewhat tongue in cheek, it startled me a bit. I mean, I had always had a cursory knowledge that today's North American culture saw children born from the sexual act as a problem (after all, Barack didn't want his daughters "punished with a baby"), but to market that idea on a t-shirt for public acceptance struck me as pretty darn bold.
A few days later [ed. note: it could have been a week], I was on the bus to Halifax on a bright morning. Once again, I sat down on a less-than-comfortable seat, but I had a far more lazy scan going on. I saw another guy my age with a shirt that had a bride and groom on it, and it said underneath, 'GAMEOVER'. Now, this might seem like yet another relatively harmless shirt with a slightly provocative caption, but it does encourage a certain culture against marriage, just as the previous shirt did against family. A wide cultural perception of marriage being the end of your life is definitely a negative thing, with our culture being built on marriage, as family is built on marriage, and neighbourhoods on families, and can-you-tell-I've-heard-Christopher-West-speak? Okay, maybe your life is over in the sense that you can no longer really engage in sketchy escapades, but good. You shouldn't be doing that anyway. It's called sketchy for a reason.
So, my realization has been, in short, that there is, in fact, an attack on marriage and the family. Maybe I didn't need to report what I saw on some t-shirts to let you in on that...
After changes upon changes
I could go on and on about other things I've realized, as I have a little list on my mind while publishing this, but I think I'll draw it to a conclusion there, with one last realization. Y'see (yes, I did use that at least twice in this entry), that list on my mind, and actually in type below this very paragraph, is a change. Yes, that paragraph will disappear by the time anyone actually READS this, but whatever. Previously, when writing anything, from blogs to articles to essays, I used to do a somewhat ramble-rant, with any number of points emerging from a pseudo-brain-to-hand method. But now, I've realized that I'm better off listing things. This may seem like a somewhat mundane realization, but I feel like my writing productivity has just gone up! And that's sort of a big deal from a guy who finds writing to be a joy he can engage in every now and then. I'm more organized, and I like that. I don't know if that simplification of writing is clear to readers, but it is a big difference to me.
We're making our escape
Without going into any detail, today has been a good day. So far. The first day of this calibre in what I feel has been months. So, I write this. And now I bid farewell to my readers, from the East Coast of Canada. I hope Stilly is up for a similar act of writing soon... We'll see, I guess.
I can only blame myself, you can only blame me
As some readers may have noticed, there has been a considerable length of time between entries here. Stilly and I decided, for the most part, to alternate in blogging, and thus you can blame only me, really. I had school, work, schoolwork, and other responsibilities. I'm not about to pretend that I couldn't have at least TRIED to get writing this. But I'm not a professional opinions writer (I sort of was, for a little while), and I generally only write when I'm feeling inspired. But I have been inspired! A few times, at least.
All I want you to leave me is alone
I gotta say, I love taking refuge. I don't mean this in a pseudo-deep, oh-my-goodness-solitude-is-like-so-indie kind of way, but rather, just alone time. Right now, for instance, I have found an undisclosed location at Dalhousie from which to listen to live music on YouTube (check out CBC's Q for some Quality stuff!) and write. I won't finish this blog here, but it's still worth noting. Y'see, moments like this remind me that I can really take pleasure in the small things. Opening the window on a stormy night to hear the rain and have consolation in my comfort. Someone once told me that that was very St. Therese of me, enjoying the little things. At the moment, I didn't jump at that point, but now I'm thinking that's probably pretty close to being true. So I'm enjoying the little things right here, right now. There IS no other place I'd rather be... Well, that might not be true. I can think of a small city or two west of here that might fit me pretty well... Like, in Alberta.
Whatever you like
Something I've come to know about myself in the past little while (I find 'the past little while' a very good and very vague phrase) is that I really appreciate knowing the passions of others. I realized this when I had a sharp sense of joy after seeing a guy in class next to me looking up cars on internet forums, and another time when I saw a guy looking up European Football scores. People love things that I don't, and I find that very interesting. I remember a friend telling me about their sort-of-secret passion for tropical fish, and it added so much to the character of this person in my mind. And, for those at home, these small passions of mine include voracious news and blog consumption, as well as atmospheric guitar fills a la 'Bad' by U2.
You know it ain't nothin' to drop a coupla stacks on you
I love how on the Blogger editing bar, there's a tab that reads 'Monetize', as if I could just translate what I write into cold, hard cash.
All winter, we got carried
This is a thought that came to my mind over a month ago, at least, and has bounced around my head since a few months ago for sure. Upon flopping into my chair-tablet hybrid in one of my favourite classrooms of the HHAAB (Henry Hicks Academic Administration Building, but with an acronym like that, why would you NOT use it?), I conducted a lazy scan of the room. A young man, roughly my age, strolled into the room with an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt on. This would be unremarkable on most occasions, but on the front of the shirt was emblazoned 'MAKE LOVE NOT BABIES', which alarmed me to say the least. And yes, it's a real shirt, Google the phrase and 'Abercrombie' and it'll pop up. While this might be somewhat tongue in cheek, it startled me a bit. I mean, I had always had a cursory knowledge that today's North American culture saw children born from the sexual act as a problem (after all, Barack didn't want his daughters "punished with a baby"), but to market that idea on a t-shirt for public acceptance struck me as pretty darn bold.
A few days later [ed. note: it could have been a week], I was on the bus to Halifax on a bright morning. Once again, I sat down on a less-than-comfortable seat, but I had a far more lazy scan going on. I saw another guy my age with a shirt that had a bride and groom on it, and it said underneath, 'GAMEOVER'. Now, this might seem like yet another relatively harmless shirt with a slightly provocative caption, but it does encourage a certain culture against marriage, just as the previous shirt did against family. A wide cultural perception of marriage being the end of your life is definitely a negative thing, with our culture being built on marriage, as family is built on marriage, and neighbourhoods on families, and can-you-tell-I've-heard-Christopher-West-speak? Okay, maybe your life is over in the sense that you can no longer really engage in sketchy escapades, but good. You shouldn't be doing that anyway. It's called sketchy for a reason.
So, my realization has been, in short, that there is, in fact, an attack on marriage and the family. Maybe I didn't need to report what I saw on some t-shirts to let you in on that...
After changes upon changes
I could go on and on about other things I've realized, as I have a little list on my mind while publishing this, but I think I'll draw it to a conclusion there, with one last realization. Y'see (yes, I did use that at least twice in this entry), that list on my mind, and actually in type below this very paragraph, is a change. Yes, that paragraph will disappear by the time anyone actually READS this, but whatever. Previously, when writing anything, from blogs to articles to essays, I used to do a somewhat ramble-rant, with any number of points emerging from a pseudo-brain-to-hand method. But now, I've realized that I'm better off listing things. This may seem like a somewhat mundane realization, but I feel like my writing productivity has just gone up! And that's sort of a big deal from a guy who finds writing to be a joy he can engage in every now and then. I'm more organized, and I like that. I don't know if that simplification of writing is clear to readers, but it is a big difference to me.
We're making our escape
Without going into any detail, today has been a good day. So far. The first day of this calibre in what I feel has been months. So, I write this. And now I bid farewell to my readers, from the East Coast of Canada. I hope Stilly is up for a similar act of writing soon... We'll see, I guess.
Monday, September 21, 2009
The ball is in B.C.
Hello!!
So, Matt refers to me as Stilly or Still... Most people simply say; Liz. For those of you who know me or who were on Mission, you will understand this. For those of you who don't know me and were not on mission... I apologize because you will probably never find out as to why he refers to me in this manner.
As Matt had mentioned in our very first blog entry, this blog came about in a very peculiar way. You see, Matt and this 'other guy' (who shall remain nameless) were pestering me all summer long. "Stilly... you haven't updated your blog in awhile..." One day, Matty, being all sarcastic (yes I caught it, so you can go run around the building, house, church or car that you are currently in right now, three times please) said to me... "I almost wrote a blog today, and then decided not to.. maybe you'll beat me to it" implying once again that I hadn't written in my blog and that he would beat me to it one day.
side note: you may have noticed the "history" box to your right--->
this would be my old blog.
So, here we are a month after mission with our new blog!!
Stilly & Matty... COAST TO COAST! We hope you enjoy your stay!
Just so all you readers know... Matt and I won't always necessarily (or ever) know before hand what each other has written or what we are going to write. So, little to Matt's knowledge, I am writing a blog entry the very same day he wrote his AND that what I'm going to write about is very similar to what he wrote. COOL EH?!!
I too, have been thinking lately about what I'm going to do with my future... career, family, etc. While on Mission, I decided I needed to take a year off school. You know, pay my student loans back, get some money, work a bit, take a break from my lovely hour and a half commute every day for classes and to just be more present at home with the fam jam. Then of course, the day after I got back home from Mission, I unexpectedly got this job as Youth Minister at my Parish. WOAH!(dramatic effect?)
I had been wondering during mission how I could be more active in my Parish when I got home and I think God spoke pretty clearly to me here and said "this is how... and you start september 1st." So, here I am, September almost over and I know that this is where I need to be.
Before mission, I would never have thought I could possibly put my plans on hold and take a year off, so I'm very new to this. But I'm left wondering what I'm actually meant to do for the rest of my life? Am I supposed to give up MY DREAM of being a teacher? Go back to school in one year, in three years, ever? Go to a different school? However daunting these questions may be, I'm trying to just focus on today for ["can any of us by worrying add a single hour to our span of life?] (Matthew 6.27)
I'm finding it very exciting not knowing what God's plans are while at the same time knowing full well that His plans are far greater than my own. ( "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55.8 )
Being as I have no idea what I'm doing as a Youth Minister, I may as well not have any idea about what I'm doing come next year, right? Expecting the unexpected one day at a time...that's my motto.
One of my fav. verses actually...
But strive first for the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
- Matthew 6.33
Intro, or Growin' Up
I'm not about to pretend that this initial Blog entry was the first attempt at writing one; I've been fighting with time constraints and the drive to write (or lack thereof) for about three weeks now, probably to the frustration of my colleague Stilly.
Allow myself to introduce... myself. Yeah, I just stole that from Austin Powers, but it's sort of vintage, as that movie came out over twelve years ago. It was that long ago, yes. Regardless, I am the titular Matty, one half of the eponymous "Stilly and Matty". I am the Right Coast, or East Coast half of the team, writing to you from a sunny and warm Halifax, which is being both unusually sunny and unusually warm.
This blog came about when I started making fun of Stilly for her lack of Blog updates.
No, really, that's pretty much the truth.
She had a Blog, which I found through her Facebook, and it ended just a few days before meeting me, which was too bad.
You see, Stilly and I came together with 51 other university students and university-age folk to take part in a Summer Mission project called Impact Saskatoon, which was held in the city of the same name in the beautiful province of Saskatchewan. Being faithful Catholics (she's better than I am), we wanted to keep the flame alive after having lived for the Gospel and working hard (and playing hard and praying hard) all Summer. Through the wonders of social media and technology, Stilly and I can keep in contact, but more importantly, we can spread our net and inform the denizens of the internet of what is going on in our lives.
Maybe Stilly would disagree, but I don't really have a SUPER exciting life, but my life does have its foibles and fun, and my mind has it's opinions and outlooks. Plus, there's the whole concept of context; if I wanted to, I could dip my toes in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, and look beyond to try to see the moors of Scotland, the coast of Portugal and the shores of Africa, while seeing the streets of my port city en route to the water. On the other hand, Stilly can, if I understand correctly, go to the Pacific and look for the shores of China, Australia, and Atlantis. Actually, sorry, that's wrong. Atlantis is clearly in the Atlantic ocean, as the etymology of the word suggests. My bad, all.
So there's context. Stilly and I share our Catholic faith and a number of other things, but we're divided by circumstance and by the Dominion of Canada, which isn't actually called that anymore. This is our introduction, but I figured I'd let her do more intro on herself. We'll alternate, so that one of us doesn't dominate this Blog.
I also through I'd offer a little different content after the bold, asterisk ellipsis.
Welcome to the land beyond the bold, asterisk ellipsis. I've always liked that style of writing, the one that allows such things. It might've been in Harry Potter, so I'll pretend I'm being cultured and British. Hmm, yes, quite.
I've been thinking a lot lately about my future, my plans, and my finances. Now, before you skip ahead because that sounds boring or something, it's far more interesting than that.
I've alternately (alternatively? Maybe?) titled this entry "Growin' Up", after the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name. The lyrics of that song don't really reflect my thoughts on the idea, mostly because he was still pretending to be Bob Dylan then, and didn't have a very coherent lyrical structure. Regardless, these things sort of pile up into the ideas of growing up, that is, maturing. Getting older. Becoming an adult. Or, becoming a young adult, as it is apparently alright to say.
I'm hitting the practicalities of growing up, and it's okay. I'm now approaching them from the viewpoint of the practical.
Before, I don't know, maybe the Summer, I generally strayed away from making grandiose plans. I mean, I had some large, vague ones, but nothing more immediate. A year ago, for instance, I was going into my second of four years of a Bachelor of Journalism programme. Yeah, my school spelled 'program' like that, so maybe that tells you a bit about it. From this, I was going to graduate (in early May 2011) and find some work in the area, maybe in radio, maybe in newspapers. Who knows. But I had that plan.
I realized, however, that I was dreading my Journalism courses that came in January 2009. They didn't interest me. I was bogged down by that idea. So I dropped out, and went into a Bachelor of Arts program (now at a school whose spelling seemed more in line with late-2000s North America) with a declared major in Political Science. Yeah, I declared a major halfway through my second year, SO WHAT. I was pretty confident, okay?
So I went from vague plans about my future to no plans about my future. "What will you do with a degree in Journalism?" asked relatives and strangers. "Become a Journalist, of course!" I would respond, with a lot of enthusiasm, apparently. But now, when asked what to do with a Poli Sci degree, I usually honestly respond that I'm not really sure, but I'm willing to find out. I don't have a dead-end degree by any means, it's just not as clear. And no, as a lot of people wonder, I'm probably not going into politics, at least not for another ten years or so, if that, and that's also very vague. Although I appreciate the questioners often answer that I'll be Prime Minister. Thanks, that's cute of you to say. And if you don't vote for me, you better pay my campaign expenses instead.
Moving on.
After the summer, because of a number of social changes in my life in friends, 'friends', and employment, I'm looking at a lot of things in my immediate future. I used to think to myself that if I made plans, that they wouldn't be following what God wanted, and He would dash them, so just put 'em away and meander through life. But I'm seeing that that is a negative way of looking at my situation, and to a certain extent, irresponsible. I have to ask myself where I'll be next Summer, what job I'll work when I get there, where I'll live next year, what my last year of university will be like, and really, what will I do with this degree. So there's changes! Heck, I'm even going to start keeping a budget, so I can make those things happen.
So growing up. It's happening, right now. Just not maybe in the more juvenile sense, as I would have looked at it before.
That's all for Matty. Still, the ball is in your court. Or, the ball is in your province.
Allow myself to introduce... myself. Yeah, I just stole that from Austin Powers, but it's sort of vintage, as that movie came out over twelve years ago. It was that long ago, yes. Regardless, I am the titular Matty, one half of the eponymous "Stilly and Matty". I am the Right Coast, or East Coast half of the team, writing to you from a sunny and warm Halifax, which is being both unusually sunny and unusually warm.
This blog came about when I started making fun of Stilly for her lack of Blog updates.
No, really, that's pretty much the truth.
She had a Blog, which I found through her Facebook, and it ended just a few days before meeting me, which was too bad.
You see, Stilly and I came together with 51 other university students and university-age folk to take part in a Summer Mission project called Impact Saskatoon, which was held in the city of the same name in the beautiful province of Saskatchewan. Being faithful Catholics (she's better than I am), we wanted to keep the flame alive after having lived for the Gospel and working hard (and playing hard and praying hard) all Summer. Through the wonders of social media and technology, Stilly and I can keep in contact, but more importantly, we can spread our net and inform the denizens of the internet of what is going on in our lives.
Maybe Stilly would disagree, but I don't really have a SUPER exciting life, but my life does have its foibles and fun, and my mind has it's opinions and outlooks. Plus, there's the whole concept of context; if I wanted to, I could dip my toes in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, and look beyond to try to see the moors of Scotland, the coast of Portugal and the shores of Africa, while seeing the streets of my port city en route to the water. On the other hand, Stilly can, if I understand correctly, go to the Pacific and look for the shores of China, Australia, and Atlantis. Actually, sorry, that's wrong. Atlantis is clearly in the Atlantic ocean, as the etymology of the word suggests. My bad, all.
So there's context. Stilly and I share our Catholic faith and a number of other things, but we're divided by circumstance and by the Dominion of Canada, which isn't actually called that anymore. This is our introduction, but I figured I'd let her do more intro on herself. We'll alternate, so that one of us doesn't dominate this Blog.
I also through I'd offer a little different content after the bold, asterisk ellipsis.
* * *
Welcome to the land beyond the bold, asterisk ellipsis. I've always liked that style of writing, the one that allows such things. It might've been in Harry Potter, so I'll pretend I'm being cultured and British. Hmm, yes, quite.
I've been thinking a lot lately about my future, my plans, and my finances. Now, before you skip ahead because that sounds boring or something, it's far more interesting than that.
I've alternately (alternatively? Maybe?) titled this entry "Growin' Up", after the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name. The lyrics of that song don't really reflect my thoughts on the idea, mostly because he was still pretending to be Bob Dylan then, and didn't have a very coherent lyrical structure. Regardless, these things sort of pile up into the ideas of growing up, that is, maturing. Getting older. Becoming an adult. Or, becoming a young adult, as it is apparently alright to say.
I'm hitting the practicalities of growing up, and it's okay. I'm now approaching them from the viewpoint of the practical.
Before, I don't know, maybe the Summer, I generally strayed away from making grandiose plans. I mean, I had some large, vague ones, but nothing more immediate. A year ago, for instance, I was going into my second of four years of a Bachelor of Journalism programme. Yeah, my school spelled 'program' like that, so maybe that tells you a bit about it. From this, I was going to graduate (in early May 2011) and find some work in the area, maybe in radio, maybe in newspapers. Who knows. But I had that plan.
I realized, however, that I was dreading my Journalism courses that came in January 2009. They didn't interest me. I was bogged down by that idea. So I dropped out, and went into a Bachelor of Arts program (now at a school whose spelling seemed more in line with late-2000s North America) with a declared major in Political Science. Yeah, I declared a major halfway through my second year, SO WHAT. I was pretty confident, okay?
So I went from vague plans about my future to no plans about my future. "What will you do with a degree in Journalism?" asked relatives and strangers. "Become a Journalist, of course!" I would respond, with a lot of enthusiasm, apparently. But now, when asked what to do with a Poli Sci degree, I usually honestly respond that I'm not really sure, but I'm willing to find out. I don't have a dead-end degree by any means, it's just not as clear. And no, as a lot of people wonder, I'm probably not going into politics, at least not for another ten years or so, if that, and that's also very vague. Although I appreciate the questioners often answer that I'll be Prime Minister. Thanks, that's cute of you to say. And if you don't vote for me, you better pay my campaign expenses instead.
Moving on.
After the summer, because of a number of social changes in my life in friends, 'friends', and employment, I'm looking at a lot of things in my immediate future. I used to think to myself that if I made plans, that they wouldn't be following what God wanted, and He would dash them, so just put 'em away and meander through life. But I'm seeing that that is a negative way of looking at my situation, and to a certain extent, irresponsible. I have to ask myself where I'll be next Summer, what job I'll work when I get there, where I'll live next year, what my last year of university will be like, and really, what will I do with this degree. So there's changes! Heck, I'm even going to start keeping a budget, so I can make those things happen.
So growing up. It's happening, right now. Just not maybe in the more juvenile sense, as I would have looked at it before.
That's all for Matty. Still, the ball is in your court. Or, the ball is in your province.
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