jeff noel.org

What Will You Headline Read?

Guest Blogger, Bob Stewart, returns today with another insightful look at life, our Faith, and our responsibility to both. Take it away Bob….

“Mom called me the other day from Tennessee, where I was raised, to read to me a couple of obituaries.  I know – that sounds so exciting, doesn’t it?  But that’s what my mom does.  She does it to let me know who I should know who either died or is related to someone who died.

But on this last call, she read to me about Albert Hamby, who died at the age of 87.  Why should that stand out at all to me?  I didn’t let this obituary go without a reverent moment of reflection.  Albert was my pastor when I was little – when I made Jesus my Savior.  That was and is a spiritual “marker” in my life, and an important person in showing me the way was Albert Hamby.

Are you living a legacy, as Dr. Johnny Hunt said in his book Building Your Leadership Résumé, which is going to outlast you?  Are you building “markers” in other people’s lives that, after you are gone, are still there to help others along the way?  It could be multitudes or your own family, and it is a question I am asking myself as well.

I am reminded of a song from Steve Green back in the 1980s, called “Find Us Faithful.”  In the chorus, he stated, “Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.  May the fire of our devotion light their way.  May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey.  Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.”

Again, I ask, “Are you living a legacy?”

Bob Stewart

Children’s Liturgy of the Word.  God’s Word.

And the fact that I would be delivering homilies (sermons) to dozens of elementary school children boggles the mind.

Yet, it will happen again today, like it does the fourth Sunday of every month.  My wife and I volunteer to do this.

Four years ago, a woman from our Church made an appeal to the congregation that she needed more volunteers or Children’s Liturgy would go away.  After Mass, we volunteered, thinking we would simply be helpers “on the sidelines”.

Funny how things turn out exactly opposite from the way we expect.

It felt good to be back in the classroom last night.  You could sense, and feel, and see God’s Holy Spirit in the classroom.

This is our son’s third year in Catechism.  This is my second year having the privilege to be a classroom helper.  However, I missed all four September classes due to my business travel schedule.

A colleague commented at the end of the business day,  “I don’t know how you do it”.

I asked her, “You know I write five blogs, everyday, then run five miles, and volunteer for things our son is involved in”?

And she already knows how hard I work as a professional speaker – she is, after all, a colleague, and a parent, and Catholic, etc.

What I have learned is that being incredibly busy is part of life.  Or not. Figure out what you want to contribute and then go from there.  Carpe diem.

Visiting today, here in Portland, Maine.  On the phone last night my wife (and son) asked how my day was.

“I left the house at 7:30AM.  I got to the Hotel room to finish the day’s activities at 8:30PM”, I said, not complaining, just stating the facts.

We all should feel blessed beyond measure for what we get and what we make of what we get.

Otherwise, life might get the best of us.

It’s a daily choice.  Sometimes even an hour to hour or minute to minute choice.

Six months ago, I accepted our Pastor’s challenge to start everyday on my knees.  Our Pastor would ask the congregation every Sunday, “How many of you started the day on your knees”?

Literally, no one’s hand went up.  Over 1,000 people and no one? Impossible.

So, on April 1, 2009, I started.  It’s been six months and I haven’t stopped. Does this make me a righteous person.  Not even close.

Does it make me more mindful of each day being a special gift and privilege?  Absolutely.

What’s stopping you?  Seriously.  How hard is it to do this every day. It isn’t.  Which brings us back to the original point.

It’s been six months.  And six months from now, it will have been a year. Six months from now will mean what to you?