911, What's your Emergency?

When traveling I like to rent cars with XM Radio so that I can tune into ESPN radio and I also enjoy the Catholic Channel. This morning the Catholic Channel had their "Let's hope they're not Catholic" segment on today. As a whole Catholics aren't immune to doing stupid things as some of our bishops, priests and let's not forget the dumb anctics of the "Nuns on the bus". In fact just because we're Catholic doesn't mean we're holier, funnier or smarter than anyone else. It does mean we are a joyful people. Authentic Catholics aren't sullen. We are joyful. We endure pain and suffering like everyone else but we don't suffer alone and therein lies the joy.
This joyful morning they played some 911 calls and I nearly doubled over laughing while driving the boroughs of Chicago.

911 operator: "What's your emergency?"

caller: "Um, my wife got attacked by a warthog and we need help. She needs a doctor."
(I want to know, how does one get attacked by a warthog?)
911 operator: "What's your location?"

caller: "18 Eucalyptus"

911 operator: "Can you spell that?"

caller:" (silent pause) Um, I'll drag her over to Oak Street and you can pick her up there"

Oh dear. Really? Let's drag her over to a street you can spell.

Our Lady of the Perpetual Shakedown

As promised, the stewardship update:

If I ever make it to heave, I promise it won't be because of any merit of my own or because of my blog titles, (more on that in the second update to this stewardship post). 

I had a conversation with a young teen who promised that all her problems would be solved and she would be who she was meant to be if only she had loads of cash. 

I've come to regard money with a bit of contempt. I really don't like it. Yes, it's nice the things it can buy, the comforting things it brings but I dread, really dread being responsible for it. It is a burden. I have to spend time making sure that I am doing what I am suppose to do with it. I have to balance being attached enough to manage it and detached enough to disperse it - not easy. 

Follow that with the temptation to purchase things for their own sake and then a further temptation to be drawn into the things it does buy and purchasing protection plans to protect our terribly important crap. 

The more $$ you have, the better you are able to drag yourself out of debt but also the greater the temptation to ponder it, to spend in contemplation of what to spend it on, how to appropriate it, to be attached to it, and to consider which charities to support and in what proportion. Money can buy and make good things happen, but it is not a good.

The truth is that the money I do have is not mine, it's been entrusted to me and as such I need to determine in what fashion I am suppose to allocate it and to be completely detached from it. "To whom much is given, much more will be demanded"

Every time I look at my local taxes on top of federal and state taxes of this great state in which I reside, I consider 2% "is a lot" but when I also examine the 10% to God that number looks excessively excessive. How many of us actually give 10%? Looking at the stats I'd say not that many of us even give a measly 2%. It hurts to give that much when bills, taxes, debt,  cost of living and children to care for are staring you in the face. It hurts even more when we are attached to it. 

There is a particular mindset I am trying to adopt. When I go on vacation I don't count the cost. I spend it like I have it because what's the sense of having a vacation when you're stressed about finances? Similarly when I give financially to the development of God's kingdom, I don't stress the cost. He has already allotted a certain amount of our finances for himself and it's my job to ensure it gets to where he needs it. That I think is the burdensome part, getting it to where he needs it. So many times many of us consider the burden to be giving in the first place. That's not the burden, that is the joyful part. 

Joy, joy, joy! During Lent?

Is that even possible? Doesn't it seem awkward? Not at all!
Lent is the time for joy, perhaps now more than ever. How do YOU recognize a Christian?

In Roman times Christians were exhorted that when asked by Roman soldiers to carry their packs for the obligatory mile, to carry it instead for two. Now they could have very well been executed had they not carried it for the obligatory mile so perhaps they could have done this carrying job begrudgingly, but no instead they happily carried the soldier's pack for not only the required mile but for two miles, joyfully. They used this opportunity to tell about their joy in Christ, the joy of Christianity. Sometimes they didn't evangelize with words but image being a soldier and running into this one group of people over and over again. These strange people who not only do the task they've been ordered to do, on pain of death, but do the job with joy and carry out not just what is obligatory but do extra, willingly. One starts to wonder, "Why are they so joyful?", "There is something different about them" and "I want that joy too."

Is it any wonder then that christianity was spread predominantly by the Roman army? The same Romans who persecuted Christians were the ones who in the end were directly responsible for spreading Christianity. Paradoxical, isn't it?

It's amazing what joy can do. So live a truly Christian joy filled life because people will see your joy and want it too. It's really the easiest way to evangelize. We are sinners in need of a savior but our God saves and lent is that time where we prepare for his saving action. So indeed, it is a time for joy!