Letting Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Another column that I wrote for The Catholic Register. Are you listening to the Spirit?

Letting Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Pointing Us in the Right Direction

If you know me, you'll notice that I can get pretty excited about certain things. Spider-man, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Lost, and Matt Maher's music are a few of the things that, although the years may pass, if you mention them, I'll start to go crazy. I'll analyze bass lines, re-enact scenes ("The Hobbits are going to Isengard!"), and pretend that I have a lightsaber. But another thing that I get all gung-ho for is my faith. Over the years, I have grown to become more emmersed in the beauty of the Catholic Church, and I try to bombard myself with this beauty as often I can.

Better Is One Day

In Phil 4:11, St. Paul says, "Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have." With whatever he has. He realizes that because he has full faith in God, he will never be alone, and that is enough for him to be content with the situations he encounters in his life.

It's an extremely difficult thing to be truly content, in the sense that St. Paul is meaning. I take 'content' to mean 'satisfied,' but I also think that being content is very different from being complacent. Complacency is so easy to fall into. It's pretty much saying "yeah, this is good enough," and leaving it at that. It's thinking that whatever you've done thus far is great, and good enough to get you by; never feeling like you need to go anywhere else.