Life is Like a Baseball Game...

    I'm a baseball fan. One of my favorite plays to watch is the steal. As soon as the pitcher motions towards home, the runner takes off. It's a race between the runner and the ball to the bag. The catcher riffles it to second just before the runner does a head first slide toward the bag. As soon as the runner touches the bag he grabs it and won't let go until the ball is away from him. What a great example of God, huh?
    Life is just like running the bases. When you're standing on a base, getting tagged by the ball has no effect. However, even if you're a hair off the bag, when you're tagged, you're out. Now think of God as the base, when you're with God, the Devil can try all he wants, but as long as you're in God's presence, you're safe. But as soon as you're away from God, whether by an inch or a mile, the devil is after you. He may be in left field, but he's making a direct route to get to you before you get back to God. But unlike actual baseball, there's a lot of false bases.
    What I mean is that rather than running to God's safety, we stop at false gods. These false gods make us feel safe, but when we're tagged, it's over. Those false safe zones could be drugs, porn, video games, social media, phones, music, the internet, etc. Sometimes in the craziness of life we run and cling to these things to feel safe. "I don't know anyone here. If I go on my phone, I won't feel so lonely." "Another girl turned me down, but the internet won't say no." We turn to these things to get love and comfort, but it leaves us feeling like Wolverine fans after the U of M/MSU game. Don't do it!!!! It's not a good feeling. Because you will feel lost and left out to dry. But just like baseball, we'll get another shot at the plate...this time, keep it simple and run to God.

Why We Sin

 

  "You're only cheating yourself!" Have you ever heard that from a coach, teacher, or parent? Maybe even all three. Our coach would yell this when we would cut corners during our sprints, or when we tried to skip a lap. My team would act like we did all the laps from time to time because we wanted to end sooner, get to the end of the run. But the end of the run wasn't our destination...we wanted to be state champs. That is a great way to describe sin.

    Sin is when we see an end that we want, but we cut corners to get it. Example: I want to get an A...oh look, the answer key! Sin grabs the goal without doing the expected work. If this happens in math, you don't learn; if it happens during conditioning, it causes weariness during the games. So why do we keep cheating ourselves?
    It's easy! We want the satisfaction right away. Constantly sinning/cheating breaks down our potential. If Michael Phelps didn't train 8 hours a day, he wouldn't have broken records.

    If you cut the sins, life cheats, that are holding you back, what would you become? Studying hard, staying physically active, growing in your friendships, you could have the coolest life ever where every night in your prayer you say, "God...we kicked butt today!"

Good VS Evil

    Being victorious is an incredible feeling. Whether it's a team victory or a personal achievement, accomplishing something you've worked hard for is an amazing feeling. But it's short lived. Getting an "A" only lasts until the next semester, winning States only lasts until the next season. Is there a victory that ever lasts? What if you could join the team that has already been victorious?
    God has already defeated the Devil. Good has already prevailed over evil and will continue. But why does it seem that evil is so prevalent? With all the hatred in the world, disgust, and betrayal, how can good still be winning? Romans 6:23 reads "For the wages of sin is death." When Christ sacrificed his life on the cross for us, he conquered death. That means that when we ask God the Father for forgiveness, Christ is there on our behalf saying "I suffered so that this man/woman can have a clean slate." And boom, you're forgiven.
    Every time you go to Reconciliation, death is defeated. It's a guaranteed victory. Evil is regularly washed away, good isn't. So if you want to be on the winning side, turn toward Christ. If you regularly turn toward Christ, AWESOME! But do it more. This week, wash away the sin that is holding you back from being a better, happier you by going to Reconciliation. Reconciliation is held here at St. Andrew Saturdays at 3:00pm or by appointment.

The Name Game

    Have you ever been in the situation of "JASON!!! How have you been!?!?" And you have no idea who the person is? Or you introduce yourself to someone and they reply "we've met before." It's an awkward feeling because it shows the other person they didn't make enough of an impact for you to remember their name. Sometimes I'll forget people's names within the first five seconds of meeting them.
    When someone calls you by name, you feel included, at the very least you feel important enough for someone to know your name. Knowing names is crucial to grow any type of community. That is why I take remembering names at youth group events very seriously. I want each teen to feel welcomed. But when I forget names as they come out their mouths, I needed to learn a few tricks fast.
    One way that helps me remember names is to repeat their name. "Jackie? Nice to meet you, Jackie. So Jackie, what's a hobby you like to do?" Another trick I use is the first couple weeks of youth group the ice breakers focus around name association. And lastly, when I failed to remember their name, I'd give them a dollar. It makes teens excited you forgot their name.
    As youth group begins a new year this week, I ask for prayers for a strong memory so I can still afford Christmas gifts this year.
    Other tricks for remembering names is asking them to spell it "Theresa? With or without the 'h?'" Or add something to their name like Jazzy Jeff, Athletic Adam, Will the Thrill, Zac attach, etc. And lastly, if you feel someone forgot your name, use it in a story. "I was walking on the dock last week and someone said "Jason! Look at that rainbow!'"

Changing Habits

    Look at your life, not too bad, huh? But what if I told you that you could make your life better with only a 1% lifestyle change? You'd think I'm crazy. "Jason, this sounds like an infomercial." That's true, but this really works! All you need to do is change 1% of you relationships, spiritual life, and media intake.

    Let’s start with relationships. We have relationships with family members, friends, teachers, and strangers. What if you took one of these relationships and put more time into making it stronger? You could take a sibling out for ice cream, do your chores without being told, welcome a new classmate into your circle of friends, etc. If you’re happy with the result, start to strengthen another friendship.

    Another important part of your life is spirituality. If you don't have a connection with your Creator, how can you know your purpose in life? The 1% change could be having a reflection of the day each night, praying in the morning, or stopping at church to pray in front of the Eucharist. One little thing to strengthen your relationship with God will greatly benefit your everyday life.

    Finally, change 1% of the media intake. The media gives us a unique opportunity to control what we take in. But media also has the ability to control us. There was a study done where a group of people went 24 hours without technology. After about 12 hours, their brains started showing signs of withdraws similar to drug addicts. The 1% change in media is to help you control the media rather than the media controlling you. It could be fasting from the internet and video games every Wednesday (exception of school projects), no electronics after 9:30pm, or limiting your TV/movie intake to 7 hours a week. The amount of time you will gain from this will astound you (you could learn the guitar).

    These 1% changes are small, but you will notice benefits in less than a week. It gives you an opportunity to live your life rather than be controlled by fear, shame, or technology. If you need extra motivation, remember that you have been called to a life of greatness, not comfort. Choosing to do homework rather than watch TV is choosing greatness rather than comfort. Imagine all you could accomplish with starting with just this 1% change.

The Voices in My Head

    HELP! There are voices in my head! One is encouraging me to better myself with challenges while the other focuses on my failures. From a third party perspective, it's easy to pick the encouraging one. If only it was that simple.
    The voice I hear that encourages me tells me to get to work, get some exercise, help others out, and get things done as they come up. This is the voice of God. He wants the best for me. The more I listen to this voice, the happier I am. So what about the other voice?
    The other voice says things like, I'll do it tomorrow, that person doesn't need my help, asking for help means I'm dumb, I'm not meant to be great, I'll probably just fail again, I should just watch TV to forget about my problems, and many more. It's crazy to think that anyone would ever choose this...but it seems we choose it a lot. This voice leads us down a path of hating ourselves...God doesn't want that! He loves us and wants us to love ourselves!
    Love is so important that Christ said the greatest commandments are to love God with all your mind and soul and to love one another. Loving someone is doing what is best for them, and that includes loving yourself. This Christianity stuff isn't complicated, it's simply choosing what is best for your soul. God wants you to be great, do you?

What's Your Instrument?

    The Catholic Church has 2000 years of history. That means 2000 years of discovery and insight people have shared about growing closer to Christ. Many holy men and women have shared things that have worked for them to grow closer to Christ. Whether saying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a Rosary, singing, reading Scripture, personal prayer, fasting, journaling, abstaining from meat, etc, all of these have helped people grow closer to Christ. We have a lot of different instruments to build our relationship with Christ. The struggle some people have is realizing that you don't have to be fluent at every instrument.
    A musician picks up one instrument at a time. Some can play multiple instruments, but they typically didn't learn them at the same time. And once they learned one instrument, it was easier to pick up another. Same can be said for Catholicism. You're not going to know or understand every form of prayer. These have been developed and expanded over our 2000 year history. We have the luxury of picking one we want to work on. So if you enjoy reading, you may want to pray through reading scripture or a spiritual book. If you enjoy exercising, you can focus on your physical struggle and push harder like Christ is calling us to push harder in our everyday lives.
    What if you can't focus on a prayer and just need something to carry you through? The Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Rosary are great for that. I have said them many times while cleaning my room. Yes, I've done things during prayer. The Rosary is honoring our spiritual mother, and cleaning my room honors my earthly mother #Twofer.
    Try a few different forms of prayer. When one works, have that be your base prayer. Then, from time to time, add a few different forms of prayer to see if they can help you deepen your relationship with Christ.