Faithful Friday, February 10, 2017
Happy Friday, everyone!
We did it! We made it through another week!
When your week is full of people who don't know how to drive, angry bosses, full parking lots, busy schedules, and just downright bad things, how do you deal with it? Do you scream and yell? Do you shut down and cry? Do you down a bottle of wine while watching another episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians? Hey, no judgement here; I've done it too.
It is so easy for us to turn to the world for comfort but what do we do when that isn't enough? What happens when we still feel the loneliness, the sadness, the emptiness? What do we do then?
We turn to a higher power, something more than ourselves, something that gives us purpose.
We turn to God.
For the last couple of years, I have been actively involved with GMU's Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM). I entered Discipleship with the wife of one of our FOCUS missionaries and began to lead a bible study. One of the things that FOCUS teaches us is the experience of "bare-handing".
Bare-handing is when we go out (typically in groups of 2) and spread the Gospel. Right now, you're probably shaking your head, thinking we're spending too much time with Jehovah's Witnesses, and when I first heard about this concept, I thought the same thing. I didn't want to go out and be rejected by people or told that I was crazy, who in their right mind would want that?
Jesus.
Jesus would want that.
Jesus wants that.
When I look at the saints, the first thing I see is their joy, their pure, absolute, unadulterated joy. They literally radiate joy. But what gave them that joy? It was Jesus, the Gospel, Mary, creation! When they found that joy, they did everything they could to spread that joy.
Think about something that makes you happy. What is the thing that made you so happy that you couldn't hold it in and you just had to tell everybody? Was it a good grade? An engagement? A promotion? Remember how good it felt to share that joy? Remember seeing how people were happy to see you happy?
That is the purpose of bare-handing.
We know our joy and we know it comes from the Lord. How could we do anything but want to tell people about that joy?
Yeah, people will probably look at you like you're crazy and call you every name under the sun, but as St. Mother Teresa said, "do it anyway".
We did it! We made it through another week!
When your week is full of people who don't know how to drive, angry bosses, full parking lots, busy schedules, and just downright bad things, how do you deal with it? Do you scream and yell? Do you shut down and cry? Do you down a bottle of wine while watching another episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians? Hey, no judgement here; I've done it too.
It is so easy for us to turn to the world for comfort but what do we do when that isn't enough? What happens when we still feel the loneliness, the sadness, the emptiness? What do we do then?
We turn to a higher power, something more than ourselves, something that gives us purpose.
We turn to God.
For the last couple of years, I have been actively involved with GMU's Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM). I entered Discipleship with the wife of one of our FOCUS missionaries and began to lead a bible study. One of the things that FOCUS teaches us is the experience of "bare-handing".
Bare-handing is when we go out (typically in groups of 2) and spread the Gospel. Right now, you're probably shaking your head, thinking we're spending too much time with Jehovah's Witnesses, and when I first heard about this concept, I thought the same thing. I didn't want to go out and be rejected by people or told that I was crazy, who in their right mind would want that?
Jesus.
Jesus would want that.
Jesus wants that.
When I look at the saints, the first thing I see is their joy, their pure, absolute, unadulterated joy. They literally radiate joy. But what gave them that joy? It was Jesus, the Gospel, Mary, creation! When they found that joy, they did everything they could to spread that joy.
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| "God made us for joy. God is joy and the joy of living reflects the original joy that God felt creating us." -Pope St. John Paul II |
That is the purpose of bare-handing.
We know our joy and we know it comes from the Lord. How could we do anything but want to tell people about that joy?
Yeah, people will probably look at you like you're crazy and call you every name under the sun, but as St. Mother Teresa said, "do it anyway".
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
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