Footprints

Today's post is another one that was inspired by a lunch time run. (Today was a fantastic run, by the way.)

I caught a glimpse of one of my wet footprints and I coulnd't help but think that my right footprint looks like Africa.  I thought of how cool it would be to have a race to benefit Africa and then on the shirt the logo would be Africa styled like a footprint.  (I really like the idea of making shirts.  Click Here).

But then, it occurred to me that my footprint also resembles a pork chop....(hey, it was lunch and I hadn't eaten yet!)

Deep thoughts, I know...

So, you be the judge:

Mark 9:24

I've been thinking about this post since last week, when Casa Doyle (minus one) came to join us for dinner.  While the kids were playing, Alice, Kim and I were discussing Faith.  I don't recall the exact train of thought that this caboose was on, but somehow we got on to the subject of the "Gospel of Prosperity" that we sometimes hear today.  "God wants you to be successful.  God wants you to be financially well off." 

This sort of "preaching" also usually refuses to acknowledge suffering of any sort.  Suffering should be avoided at all costs.  Suffering is not something to deal with.  In fact, if you just have enough faith, all of your ailments will be healed.  And that is what our conversation zeroed in on.

I listen to KSBJ every day during my commute, and one day the morning DJ mentioned that his daughter is suffering with multiple issues, but they are praying every day for a complete and total healing.  Callers were calling in expressing their prayers, and others to say that they had this or that ailment, but God healed them completely.  The DJ asked one girl who had been struggling with an illness for some time if she could pinpoint when exactly she was healed.  The girl replied that when she really believed that God would heal her, that's when the healing came.

There is something about that statement that really strikes a chord with me.  There's a song on KSBJ right now by Addison Road called "What Do I Know of Holy" that puts it well in the second verse:

"I guess I thought that I had figured You out,
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about,
How You were mighty to save,
But those were only empty words on a page..."

We have all heard stories of out of miraculous healings happening, and as Christians, we believe that God, the Creator of all things, has power over His creation, including the power to cure the incurable disease.  The question then becomes, "why doesn't God heal everyone?"  Is it really, as the girl on the radio said, tied to our faith?

The title of this post is from Mark, and Mark speaks a lot about our faith.  It is here that we find that Jesus is unable to perform any miracles in Nazareth because of the lack of peoples' faith (Mark 6:1-6).  So, it seems there is some scriptural evidence to the young woman's claim.

So, does that mean that if you are praying for a healing and it doesn't come, that your faith is lacking?  I don't believe that, and I turn to the story of Lazarus in the Gospel of John for my reasoning.  When Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick, he doesn't immediately go to him.  Instead Jesus waits for two days before leaving to go be with Lazarus, and by the time Christ was in Bethany, Lazarus was dead.  Jesus loved Lazarus (John 11:3), so why would he wait?  Because He was going to use the situation to Glorify the Father (John 11:4), and strengthen the disciples' belief (John 11:15).

How many times have we said with Martha and Mary, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died"?  Brother, Sister, Son, Daughter, Father, Mother, Husband, Wife?  But He IS with us, and He will not forsake us.

So what is my point to this whole post?  I fall into the category of believers that maintain God can perform miracles, but usually chooses not to, not based on our lack of faith, but on the good that will be born of suffering.  God will not leave us.  His hand is always leaving fingerprints on our situations.  But, basically, "don't expect a miracle."  It bothers me that I fall into this category.  I feel like I've mailed in the chance for my faith to move mountains (Matthew 17:20.) 

So I say along with the boy's father in Mark 9:24, "Lord, I do believe, help my unbelief!"

Pack 1727 Fall Campout 2009

This past weekend Evan, Elliot, Drew, Pop and I braved the rainy/cold forecast to attend the Pack 1727 Fall Campout and boy, was it great!

We arrived Friday evening around 5:30pm.  It had rained on us pretty much the entire time, but by the time we got there, it was reduced to a slight drizzle.  It was pretty chilly, however, which was a pleasant change from the unseasonably warm October we've had thus far.

Pop and I put the tent up while the boys kept warm and dry in the car.  Once the tent was up, we let the boys run around inside the tent before we started piling things in.  A concrete picnic table get up would become our kitchen and around this we erected dad's canopy to keep the kitchen as dry and inviting as possible.  As with kitchens in many homes, this was going to be the heart of our campsite and provide a place for great times and great conversations.  As with the Spring Campout Pop was our chef extrordinaire cooking fried fish, shrimp and of course his famous french fries on Friday night.  There weren't nearly the amount if kids around this time due to the weather, but all who ate were satisfied!  Pop cooked all of our meals including eggs, bacon and sausage for breakfast both mornings, hot dogs for lunch on Saturday and Aunt Bessie's Chicken Jambalaya for dinner on Saturday night.  It was fantastic!  Gone are the days of Chef Boy-Yar-D Ravioli out of the can!

--Pop's Kitchen

One great thing about having Pop there is that he lives up to the Eagle Scout billing.  Ever true to the motto of "Be Prepared," Pop had a backup plan for anything that could have (and did) go wrong!  The inverter that he brought to give light to the campsite smoked, snapped, crackled and popped as soon as it was hooked up to the battery.  Not to worry, Pop brought his $1 garage sale Coleman Lantern just to test it out.  It turns out that it was a dollar well spent, as it was our only means of light on the outside!  The lack of an inverter also meant no electricity to blow up our air mattresses (hey, I never said we were roughing it!) but Pop had brought a hand pump.  Luckily it never came to that because our tent neighbors graciously let us borrow thiers.  Also, we were supposed to have a Pack dinner on Saturday night, but Pop decided to bring the stuff to make Jambalaya anyways and again that proved to be a brilliant move because our Pack Dinner cooks backed out due to the weather.  So we were covered everytime something didn't turn out exactly as planned thanks to Pop!  Thank You Pop!  This makes me even more sure that keeping the boys engaged in Scouting is the right thing to do.

Saturday began with den time and pumpkin carving and after lunch the boys learned about alligators and even got to pet a baby alligator.  Evan hiked back to the camp, but after last year's hike Elliot and Drew were more than happy to take Pop's truck back to the camp.

--Evan entertains a Big Daddy Long Legs spider

--Elliot and his Tiger Den

--I love this picture...so joyful!

--The Webelos lead a flag quiz

--Talk about bed head!

--Elliot and Kai.

--Elliot and the Tiger Den wait for the Alligator Lady

--Everyone waits patiently

--Elliot had a great time meeting new friends

--It takes all of Evan's energy to not make a silly face!

Evan's Pumpkin: Paul Stanley of KISS

--Drew's pumpkin: Scary face with a scar on his eye

--Elliot's pumpkin:  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!

--Camp neighbors enjoy the fire

As darkness fell, we moved to the bonfire where each pack performed a skit and told jokes and stories.  After this, they gave some awards out.  Elliot recieved his Bobcat badge and Evan received his Light of Christ medal and badge that he worked so hard to get.  I was so proud!  Elliot was so excited to get his badge, you should have seen the joy beaming from his face.  My little boy is so grown up now.  Also, I was very impressed with Evan on this trip.  He really came out of his shell getting up and telling two jokes around the campfire and really getting into his skit.  It was really neat seeing him and all of the Webelos leading the younger boys in some of the activities.  Again, I'm reminded more and more of how Scouting is such a good character builder.

--Evan receives his Light of Christ medal and badge

--Evan telling jokes

--And another joke!

We were wiped out after such a long day and slept very well Saturday night.  Sunday morning after breakfast we began breaking camp and saying our goodbyes to our tent neighbors.  (Drew has a new best friend in Matthew Farace.)

--Drew and his new best friend, Matthew Farace

On the way home we drove by the giant statue of Sam Houston which was just minutes from the park.  We really enjoyed that.  After seeing this huge statue I asked Evan who Sam Houston was and he said he didn't know.  I mentioned that for someone to have such a big statue, wouldn't that mean he was pretty important?!  Hmmm, I think I have an idea for their next "Mission Impossible Homeschool Task!"

--Elliot kept calling Sam Houston Abraham Lincolon

--After taking these pics I thought one looked like a Beatles album cover...

--The gang stops to pose with Sam (and in Elliot's case...to pick his nose...)

See all of the pictures from the weekend here.

Multi-Tasking

I've always yearned to have the true gift of Multi-Tasking:  to do several things both simultaneously and WELL!  I have the several things simultaneously down pat...it's the "well" part that I don't have.  I'm working on it.  For the most part, I just try to get as many things done as possible, and if there's any way to combine tasks and complete them at the same time, its all the better.  Which brings me to today's post.

One of the things I was thinking about yesterday was the phrase "doing the LORD's work," and I envisioned God as my boss sitting behind His desk and me sitting there with Him receiving instruction.  God has a job for all of us to do and we need to think long and hard if we are doing our jobs as well as we possibly can.  Following the "God-as-our-boss" analogy, we are paid a salary by God, and it is a truly equal salary that we are paid.  We are paid in TIME.  God gives everyone the same 24 hours in a day.  How well am I spending the time I've been given?  How much of the time that I've been given have I used to His Glory vs. chasing after my own selfish wants and desires?

Then came my lunch run and in the true spirit of wanting to multi-task and make good use of the one hour of time that I have been given for lunch I decide to run and to pray the rosary.  I've been talking a lot lately about God and Running and Spiritual vs. Physical fitness, so it only seems logical to finally and officially marry the two so they truly become one!  So here I am running and praying the rosary and then the thought occurs to me that I should be using this time to evangelize.  But how?  Hmmm, I wonder how many people see me huffing and puffing as I make 3 rounds around the block?  I wonder if I wore a shirt that had a Godly message on it?  What would that message be?

So, that's it.  I'm now on a quest to create some simple, Godly-Themed Shirts to use as I run.  My first Idea is below.  I created this on Zazzle.com.

Front of Shirt:  All You Need is GOD

Back of Shirt:  GOD is All You Need

It needs to be simple and to the point.  And honestly, I'm wanting these messages to bring Faith, Hope and Love to anyone seeking it, even if it means they stop me and want to talk about it.  So I'm just trying to think of a few good ideas that will make people stop and think of God if they see the message.

Please post here with some simple messages that you think would be good to put on a shirt that would spread the love of God!

The Physical and Spiritual Fitness Connection, Part 2

Continuing on a previous post regarding the connection I feel between physical fitness and spiritual fitness, this post comes courtesy of yesterday's lunch run.  Let me set the scene for you:

It was a gorgeous day outside: mid to low 80's, low humidity, cobalt blue skies.  It was a calm day inside, ie: not many fires to put out around the lab.  I had brought my running clothes out of habit more than actually thinking I was going to run at lunch, but somewhere around 10:00 am, I started getting a tinge of a headache and it just kept growing.  Around 11:30 am, I start soliciting takers for going out to eat, but nobody took me up on it.  I knew I should go running...that I needed to go running*...but I had a headache.

I made a half hearted motion out the door as though I'd go to lunch by myself, but I didn't make it.  I forced myself to grab my bag and head out.  I figured the fresh air would do me good.  That there was a reason why no one would go to lunch with me and that reason is that I was supposed to go running that day.  That I would somehow benefit from it.

And that leads me to the latest connection between physical and spiritual fitness:

You should do it even if you don't want to.

With exercise there are many excuses that I can use to not run:  "It's too hot/cold/humid/rainy/sunny outside to run."  "My foot/knee/hips/toe/head hurts."  "I don't have the time to run."  "Free Lunch!!"  I have many excuses when it comes to neglecting prayer as well:  "I don't have time to pray."  "I'm not 'feeling' it today."  "I don't know what to pray for."  "I can't concentrate enough to pray."

"The spirit it willing but the flesh is weak."
--Matthew 26:41

My spirit wants to pray.  My spirit wants me to exercise because my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and here lately, the temple has got some weeds that need pulling, some places that need some touching up and some rotten wood that needs replaced.

So, I forced myself to go running.  Again, I thought that the fresh air would do me good.  I would start out slow and just see how it goes.  I forgot my mp3 player and so I knew I'd have a lot of time to just be with my thoughts and to pray.  By the time I got out there, my tinge of a headache had turned into a full blown headache, and after the first quarter mile it was throbbing.  To take my mind off of it, I began to sing to myself the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and little by little, step by step, my headache started to go away.  By the end of the run, it was completely gone!  I was amazed!  As I took note of what had happened, I realized that I had to post on here about the importance of exercising and praying even though sometimes I don't want to.  You never know the benefit/blessings you will receive until you do it!  In my case on Friday, my headache went away.  In the case of prayer, I've heard it said (C.S. Lewis?) that the prayers that are the most efficacious are those that we pray even when we don't want to pray.  I believe that we will never truly know how much our prayers meant to others until the Particular Judgement.  At that time, we'll see just what impact we had on other people's lives.

So what is it that causes the "don't wants"?  For me I think it basically boils down to pride, the original and most deadly of the seven deadlies.  The sin that goes before all other sins.  I find it hard to run if I "don't have anything to run for," meaning that I'm not training for a race.  I need to remind myself that I am still "running for a reason," and that reason is my health and, ulitmately, my family.

Spiritually, I realize now and admit that pride has kept me from growing in the way the LORD has wanted.  I have always "taken pride" in the fact that I'm a "good Catholic."  Go to Mass, read the bible, pray, etc., etc., etc.  However, I should have realized that if I was "taking pride" in these things, I was missing the point!  To put it one way, I had an inflated "Faith Ego."  This inflated faith ego prevented me from going to the ACTS Retreat for three years.  I thought I didn't need it.  It would do me no good.  I wouldn't get anything out of it.  Well, God allowed me to eat some Humble Pie for a while and finally, my Spirit cried out loud enough to trump my Flesh and I signed up for the retreat.  There were many obstacles put in my way, none bigger than when my car needed $600.00 of repairs two weeks before the retreat.  I couldn't afford to go.  Even though they say money will not prevent anyone from attending, my pride was the first to cry out that I, "wasn't going to accept charity."  Instead of calling it off right away I slept on it, and I noticed that my first reaction to anything is that of the flesh, and this case was no exception.

"The spirit it willing but the flesh is weak."
--Matthew 26:41

So I decided to ignore my flesh and make the call to the Retreat directors to see if we could work something out.  I'm so glad I did, because from the moment I got there until the moment I left, I could hear God talking to me, reaffirming that I was not only meant, but called to be there.  After three years of telling God "no," I finally said, "yes" and He has blessed me ever since.

So, to quote a famous ad, when it comes to exercise or praying:

JUST DO IT!

And in hindsight, it is comical that I write this.  Just last night I was telling Kim that I was trying to gain motivation from my good friend and Iron Man Triathlete David McCullough.  I asked him what kept him motivated during those tough days when he didn't want to get out there.  His answer was to "Just Do It!"  I told Kim, "that doesn't help me at all!"  Yet here I am agreeing!

*When we were in Florida I bought one of those Life is Good T-shirts that says, "Gotta Run." Here lately when I wear that I feel a little bit guilty, and joke that it should say, "Need to Run." Hence the pictures on this post.