What Are You Washing That Car For?

I can't mention it enough, I love being a father. I believe that I have learned more in the few years being a father than I have in my entire life up to becoming a father. I have learned so much about love, compassion and mercy. For my family summer break is in full swing. My children are all home and this year my wife and I decided to challenge our children. We realize that summer break is a wonderful time to have experiences and to relax, but we also want them to realize the importance of hard work. We want to make sure that our children are prepared so that when they leave our home they will be successful in their adult lives. The last thing that we want is for them to get out on their own and be shell shocked by the concept of having to work and follow directions to make a living and sustain themselves, so my wife and I have come up with a variety of small tasks that they can handle that will teach them not only how to work but to work hard so they can develop as young people into wonderful adults. 

My seven-year-old has taken to this idea rather quickly. Rather than paying them money for everything that they do I want them to realize that sometimes you should do things for no benefit of yourself. However my seven-year-old has learned that the more work he does the more video game time he receives. It is almost as if I can't see inside his mind where he is calculating how much video game time he is expecting to receive for each task he completes. Yes, I do want him to work hard and I want him to realize the value of hard work, but I also want him to learn the virtue in doing things for others out of love because he loves them instead of doing it for personal gain. Realizing this behavior it makes me question myself. Why do I do the things that I do? What are my motivations? Yes it is true that we do things in this world for personal gain. I go to work not because I like it there, but because I make a good living and have a variety of benefits that allow me to provide for my family. 

One question though that pops up in my head is, "Why do I go to church?"

Some may answer this question by saying, "I do not want to go to hell." Others may reply stating, "That it's just what they're supposed to do." I know that some people go to church because it's a great place to hang out and they know people there and it's a place where they feel like they belong. Few people are devious. They will attend to merely look good, so that they can have some sort of stature in their local community. Know this, God loves you and yes he does want you to come to his Church, but God wants you to want to be there. 

As a father I love my children I also hope that they love me, just as such, God is your heavenly father, he loves you and he hopes that you will love him. God will not force you to love him. He has given you free will he will let you choose. God wants you to come to his Church because he is hoping that you will come to build a stronger relationship with him. Simply God loves you and he wants to spend time with you. God wants you to acknowledge how wonderful he is and all that he has a lovingly done for you. You could come to mass every Sunday, you could tithe 10% of your weekly gross earnings, you could donate time at the local food pantry, you could do a wide variety of things because "that's what Christians are supposed to do" but if you are not doing them out of love and because you love God then they empty gestures to God. 

As I stated before God wants you to come to church because he wants you to spend time with him. God wants you to learn. He wants you to become a better person, in fact he wants you to become the best you possibly can be because he knows what your true potential is. God has made you all that you are all of your talents and abilities. God has given you the beating heart in your chest, the air in your lungs, the world in which you live, everything that you see, smell, touch and hear is a gift from God. In response God wishes that you would give 10% (at least) of your earnings back to him. Why, because God wants to take that 10% so that he can help others in need. God wants you to donate so that you can help your brothers and sisters in humanity in their time of need, so that there is a church to attend; so that there is someone in that church to teach; so that there is money collected for disasters that may arise. Just as I ask my two oldest to help around the house so that their siblings have a nice home to live in that is clean and orderly, God wants us to help our brothers and sisters in humanity by giving back and making this world the best we possibly can out of love. It is for the same reason that God wants you to give to the poor, aid the sick, care for the dead and to help those in utter poverty, but he wants us to do this all out of love not just because we are looking for a "Get Out of Hell" card, so why do you do the things you do?

If you're not busy my car needs washed...  just saying. 

MT 7:21-29

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.

All In or All Out, That is the Question?

How much does it stink to be in need and not have any help. Once I walked home 15 miles because my car broke down and no one wanted to stop and pick me up. It was especially disheartening to see people I knew drive by without pause. Like it or not there will be times in all of our lives when we need help. Some of us are lucky and our time of need is not that dire. For others their distress can be life shattering. God knows that this world works best when everyone goes “all in”. I cannot count the times when people in this great land have come together and overcome great obstacles. God sent his son Jesus to show us how to love and taught us to love “all in”. Jesus the man himself even let himself be arrested, beat, mocked, spit on, nailed to a cross and left to die for us because Jesus loved “all in”. There is so much need in the world and it can all be tended to with love. I need, you need people all over this world need wether they know it or not. God didn’t make us all the same. He didn’t make each one of us a self contained self sufficient person. He created us each with needs and everyone with complimenting gifts so that we could learn to love. Love each other and take care of each other. To look beyond our own selfish flesh driven desires and become something more. I truly believe that if we all worked as hard at giving as we now do at getting that we would destroy famine, poverty, and sickness, but to do that we all need to go “all in”. We need to hold nothing back. I know that many right now may be shaking their heads thinking, “Yeah, thats great but it will never happen”, and with that attitude it won’t. Many are probably thinking that the problem is so impossibly large that it can never be conquered. It is true that we will not end poverty, sickness and famine today. However if we BEGIN today we can get there. If you want to get somewhere else the first thing you have to do is walk out the door. Unfortunately many stay inside and just lament that they are not where they want to be. It all begins by putting more love in the world than we are taking out RIGHT NOW, TODAY. Your part in this journey can be as easy as taking each day and smiling as much as possible. It’s amazing how you can see people transform right in front of you if you lock eyes with a smile. Whenever I feel lost on ideas of how I can give I look to Jesus. I open my Bible and look at his teachings. He loves you and is waiting to help and spend time with you. The question though is, Are you ready to go “all in”?

Luke 21:1-4

1He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; 2and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. 3And he said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had."