Empty Space

Now, I'm a mess. Let's be honest, everyone is a mess. No one is perfect, and try as we might, we have all failed at something. In my school work, in my job as a youth ministry coordinator, as a friend, as a brother, and as a son, there are times when I just mess things up. Going a bit more general: people expect certain things of us, and we expect certain things of others. And every once in a while, people disappoint us. For the last little while, I've been thinking about all of this, and God has been calling me to really understand and come to terms with it. It is too fitting for Lent for it to be coincidence (if there even is such a thing) that I have this truth mulling about inside:

Everyone you ever love will hurt you.

Settling For Less

Jesus said many things about Himself while He dwelt among us as a human being. One statement in particular stands out to me: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). It's such a powerful statement. Christ is telling us that we will find eternal life through His way, which is truth. And He set up His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church on earth to show us the truth, guided by the Holy Spirit.

But the fact of the matter is...as Catholic Christians, while the Truth leads us home, it also sets us apart from the world.

Apathetic Way to Be

Recently, I’ve been on a shopping spree. And by spree, I mean that I went shopping. Besides this shopping outing that I embarked on, the last time I went to a mall with the sole purpose of buying clothes was like. When Christ was born. “But wait Jeremy! You weren’t born back then!” Exactly. I go to Park Royal because there’s a Future Shop there. If I could wear an Xbox 360, I would.

My friend Daina had planted in me the seeds of “looking good.” To which I replied, “Honey, you can’t look much better than this.” Well, sort of. Well, no. And so that weekend I went to get a nice pair of jeans. And then the next weekend I went back to the mall with no specific shopping aim, but just to look around and see what caught my eye! I ended up buying some really nice stuff, and yeah I was satisfied with my purchases. Yes, I thought I looked nice in the stuff (otherwise I wouldn’t have forked over the money, even if they were on sale). But it actually made me ponder a bit, that from one sentence from a friend (not blaming her, by the way), my state of mind went from trying to look alright and keep warm to trying to look fantastic and keep cool.