Keep Fighting for Joy

Almost seven years ago, I penned this blog on fighting for joy. 

Here are the highlights: 

• Joy isn't a reaction to circumstances; it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. In this way, it should be considered a virtue instead of an emotion. It is a tendency, or disposition, toward the good. According to Peter Kreeft, "Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self."
• We can foster more joy in our lives through prayer, sacrifice, and curiosity - wonder - born out of gratitude.
• The enemy will come to kill and steal and destroy our joy (John 10:10). Therefore, we have to fight for it - finding joy, keeping it, giving it to others. 

If seven additional years of living have taught me anything, it is that I underestimated just how much this fight for joy would be the fight of my life. 

Life is really hard and filled with suffering; it is good, though, and also filled with blessings. 

Finding, keeping, and giving joy requires vigilance in prayer, self-care, and being aware. 

This fight for joy will necessitate faith and demand hope. Faith in a God who promises that the best is always yet to come, if not in this life then assuredly in the next. This fight for joy demands hope that this promised future will come to fruition.

And, faith and hope depend on love. Not on our love, thankfully; our love is fickle and fleeting. Our faith and hope rely on God's perfect love. This love - willing the good of another - is what makes our faith in Him and our hope in a better future more than fantasy. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (John 3:16). 

God's deep, abiding, abounding love for us compelled Him to take on our human flesh, enter creation, and teach us "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6) in order to reunite us to Himself. 

He testifies to His love for us by taking on the punishment for our sins on the cross. And, His love for us was so powerful that not even sin and death could overcome it. He rose from the dead and lives again and promises those who believe in Him this same partaking in eternal life. 

Jesus is who He says He is. He keeps His promises. He loves us - you, me, everyone. 

As we enter these final few days of Advent, enter into the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Nativity.  The prophecies of the Old Testament were all fulfilled - perfectly, entirely, unexpectedly. God comes to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, not as a warrior king, but behind enemy lines, as a baby, on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, into a family of low status. 

As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage” (Mere Christianity, 1952).

Be on the lookout for God's surprises in paradoxical ways. We actually get more joy out of giving than receiving. Like Mary, we become who we were created to be in the measure that we both align ourselves to God's plan for us and freely give ourselves to others. Like Joseph, we may be called to our vocation in a way that is quite unlike what we had in mind. Like John the Baptist, we must decrease and point others to Christ so that He can increase. Like Elizabeth and Zechariah, we need to maintain faith that our God of love gives us reason, even when it seems to be beyond reason, for hope. 

Our Lord conspires - meaning that He breathes with us - for us to take part in His story of salvation. He  plans for us to play a key role, albeit a supporting and most likely conventional one, in HIStory.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ desires more joy for us than we could ask for or even imagine. 

Keep fighting for it...the best is yet to come!

Rise up!

Joseph Heagney (2016) argues that defining the problem is often the most important and overlooked part of a the work of a team, group, or organization.  Teams often jump into naming the solution or not going far enough in their definition of the problem. Heagney poses the situation of someone's car breaking down. 

A solution minded approach is that you overlook what the problem really is, and just jump to the solution, to fixing it, potentially neglecting underlying and undiagnosed conditions. 

A shallow definition of the problem is that the car is broken down. This, though, is not necessarily the problem. 

Heagney states that in digging deeper into the situation, the problem arises when the car is broken down AND you have somewhere to which you need to get by car. 

This clearer statement of the problem can then lead to actionable solutions: walking, riding a bike, taking a bus, Uber, calling a tow truck to get it fixed. 

Being aware of the situation - our car is broken down - is important. However, a deeper definition of what makes this a problem can lead to the right solution and the steps to get there. 

To make what might be a stretch of a connection to the first and second weeks of Advent, it is great that we wake up and become aware of our need for a Savior in Jesus Christ. This is important. Hearing a grinding noise, feeling rattling, seeing smoke - these are all important things to notice to know that your car isn't functioning properly. 

But, noticing these things doesn't mean that you will actually do anything about them. 

Many people saw Jesus - witnessed His miracles, listened to His preaching, knew Him personally, and acknowledged there was something special about Him - but failed to take the next steps to actually do anything about this awareness. 

From the rich young man who goes away sad after being told to sell all of his possessions and then follow Jesus  (Mt. 19:16–30; Mk. 10:17–3; Lk. 18:18–30), to the disciples that grumble and walk away from the Bread of Life discourse (John 6), to Judas (John 13:29) and Pontius Pilate (John 18:28-40) there are many examples of people who were aware of the situation of Jesus, but unwilling to take the next steps to do anything about it.

This week, let's turn our alert and oriented states into action.

Our messages this week focus on preparation (12/5, 12/9, 12/10, and 12/11), and finding a way to encounter and bring others to Christ (12/6 and 12/7). From St. John the Baptist's messages (12/5, 12/9, 12/10 and 12/11), to St. Nicholas's (12/6) social justice efforts, to St. Ambrose's (12/7) preaching and prophesying that converted St. Augustine and Emperor Theodosius, to Juan Diego's (12/9) humble service to Our Lady of Guadalupe, to the Immaculate Conception's (12/8) fiat to bring Christ into the world, the cloud of witnesses whose feasts we celebrate this week demonstrate discipleship in action. 

May any inspiration we find in these scriptures and stories spur us to imitation and ignition. 

This Advent, the Holy Spirit is prompting you to wake up. Through the sights and sounds of the season, He is striving to get your attention.  

He has placed some definite action on your heart and is leading you to more faithfully live out your call to follow Christ: read the daily Scripture; learn more about the saints celebrated throughout Advent; devote time to praying the Rosary; participate in reconciliation, the Eucharist, Adoration; spend less money on gifts and invest more time on relationships; connect with the lost and lonely; heal past hurts; forgive as we would like to be forgiven; turn off your phone, your device, your computer, your TV, and/or the lights to get more sleep; turn on sacred silence and take time in solitude; listen; pray.

You're awake. 

Don't stay where you are. 

Rise up. Take up your mat - whatever action you're being called to embrace.  

And go!

*In the spirit of last week's post, here is a soundtrack for Advent's Week 2. There are a few traditional hymns and carols this time around with some others that fit more with the scripture and saints. I hope they help you to rise up, take up your mat, and go: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LhYy6ArZtpaqySboxpXms?si=fa0cf831c6984d3f.

Reference:

Heagney, Joseph. (2016). Fundamentals of Project Management (5th Edition). New York: 

    AMACOM – Book Division of American Management Association. 

Wake up!

As a high school football player at Benedictine High School in Cleveland, Ohio, our team did not have a field on our campus. As such, we had to run to a local park that was about a mile away from the school. Once the entire team was dressed for practice and our coaches - who traveled to the field in a van with water and other equipment - gave us the okay, we were to start running to the field. 

However, we would walk until one of the sophomores on the team tasked with "van duty" would shout "Van!" as he saw it pull out of the school's parking lot. 

Most of the time this strategy proved successful. The young scout would spot the van and alert the rest of the team of its coming. 

Sometimes, though, the spotter would get caught acting like a typical 15 year old boy and miss the van's arrival, causing the team to endure more sprints and the offending player to have a rough practice. 

Other times the coaches, who undoubtedly knew our strategy, would take a side street and catch us unaware and slacking. 

We could have - and in hindsight should have - just ran anyways and without the presence of the coaching staff. Instead, though, we sacrificed building our endurance to play this game of cat and mouse. 

This Advent, let's stop playing the game of consumerism attached to Christmas and instead run the race of faith that has been marked out for us as disciples of Christ.

This first week of Advent, Christ commands us, "Be vigilant at all times" and "and pray that (we) have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36). Jesus encourages us to beware - to be aware - of not becoming "drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch (us) by surprise like a trap" (Luke 21:34-35). 

Let us not rely on a scout to warn us that Christ is coming. Christ has told us Himself!

Let's wake up and run! 

Let's stay awake and keep running! 

Keep your eyes open to the wonders God has wrought in our midst - healing the centurion's servant (11/29/21), feeding the 5,000 (12/1/21), and literally opening the eyes of the blind person (12/3/21). 

Continue to listen to the words of the Word of Life, who today is speaking life into our dry bones, inviting us into discipleship and to take part in His saving mission (11/30/21 and 12/4/21). 

Heed His messages and build your life on the solid rock of Christ (12/2/21). 

Wake up from your slumber. Glory is waiting...and coming. 

*If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a huge fan of music and often accompany my ideas with songs. Below I propose a soundtrack for Week 1 of Advent. This won't even come close to the typical sounds of the season, but I hope it helps you to wake up, stay awake and keep running the race of faith: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/69nnfNJXHR52zsBPhfUgGB?si=f609103a1d964b0f.