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.

The Church And Hypocrites

    "The Church is full of hypocrites!!!!" That is not true...there's always room for more. Think about it, even the Pope needs to go to Reconciliation. There's this fallacy where people think those who go to church think they have it all together. We don't, that's why we go to church.
    All you need to do is look at the Mass...we ask for forgiveness 3 times...3 TIMES!!! The first is right at the beginning, "I confess, to almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned. In my thoughts, and in my words. In what I have done, and what I have failed to do. Through my fault...Lord have mercy." Then again during the Our Father "...Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us..." And finally, right before Communion we say "Lord, I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."
    We also pray for those who are not at Mass, "Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection, and all who have died in your mercy: welcome them into the light of your face."
   Yes, the Church has a lot of people who are hypocrites in it. But the Catholics who are conscious of the Mass realize how often we mess up and how often the Church helps us seek forgiveness. There is not one person in the Church who hasn't sinned, but we're called to strive to love more. That's the role of the Church, to help us love more each day. If that's not happening, what is?

Tips To Heaven

    God lets each of us set our bar for Heaven. And a lot of people seem to be raising it, but not me. I'm trying to lower that bar as much as I can, and I suggest you do the same. So the bar that I'm talking about is the mercy bar. I found it in the Our Father.
    In the Our Father, Jesus drops yet another truth bomb. Jesus told us to ask God to, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Boom, drop the mic #OnFleek #OhNoHeDidn't. In other words, forgive me as much as I forgive others. Every time you pray this, you're telling God to be merciful only as much as you are to others. Think about it...Take a second...
    If you don't forgive someone for taking the last Fruit Roll Up, you're telling God to hold you at a really high standard. Lower that bar. Forgive the Fruit Roll Up thief. Someone slaps you, hurts you, lies to you, forgive them over and over and over again. That way, when judgment day comes and you're standing at the pearly gates, St. Peter's going to be like, "Way to forgive. High five. Way to choose God."
***Disclaimers: Jesus isn't telling us to be pushovers. Forgiving a person is kind of like getting rid of the animosity. It doesn't mean you have to be bffs, or even friends. Just that when you see that person, you don't have an urge to hurt them. Nor is this a tit for tat thing. If you forgive someone for slapping you, it doesn't give you a free slap God will automatically forgive you for. This is just a creative way to help forgive the person who's really being a pain in the butt.

Calming The Storm

Let's walk through this Sunday's Gospel reading:
    You're on a boat with about 8 other people. There's a few more boats around you with your friends on them. You set out into the water. As night falls, you can no longer see the shore. Then clouds begin to form. A cool wind rushes over the water and the rain starts. The wind picks up and there are sheets of water coming down. The boat is rocking over 5 foot waves. Crates and other cargo are sliding around the deck.
    In all this mayhem you turn to the back of the boat and you see Jesus sleeping. You run over to him and beg him to wake up. You shout "Don't you care that we could die!" Jesus stands up, holds out his hand and the storm stops. The sea turns as smooth as glass, barely a ripple in the water.
    You look up at Christ. What's going through your mind? What do you want to tell him right there? What storm are you going through? Tell Christ to calm the storm.
    In the passage, the storm died down. In life, that's not always the case. You may continue to be bullied or other unfortunate things may continue to happen. But calling on Christ will calm the storm in your heart. So that even if total chaos is around you, you'll be peaceful and know what to do. In your storm, know that Christ cares so much about you; more than your friends, parents, and yourself combined. Don't just trust that God will be there for you, know that he will. God created you. He has your best interests at heart. He will protect you in the storm and calm your heart. Christ will never fail you. If you think he's not answering, pray louder, this passage says he may be a heavy sleeper ;)