God – Page 34 – Disney Customer Service Keynote Speaker

What Is Love?

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.”

-St. Augustine

How does St Augustine’s definition compare with your definition of Love?

Life and love are never easy. Everything requires work. Hard work.

Today’s a new day, a fresh opportunity. Do what you do – with Love.

Or, you could opt to do the opposite. But don’t complain if your results are not what you hope or wish for.

Hard work is the only way.

No Regrets If Today Is The Last

Our beloved Canine son, Carter, our 11-year old Yellow Lab, is very sick.

What started a few weeks ago, appearing to be the a routine distraction from food – a neighbor’s pet in heat – has manifested itself into complications we may not recover from. Cancer.

While our hearts are breaking, they are not completely shattered. Big difference.

We have no regrets with Carter. We have given and received all there is and was, to give and receive.

Peace and blessings. Faith, Hope and Love.

Life. Death.

Trust in the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength.

And then cry like a baby, until we can no longer stay awake.

Doug Landis Mouth Art

Do you have days where you think, “It’s just too difficult”? We all do.

What’s the solution? One solution is to look around and realize there will always be someone who makes your challenges like amateurish.

Doug Landis was a high school wrestler, until a wrestling injury left him a quadriplegic.

His brother said he was watching too much TV and presented a challenge to draw and placed a pencil in his mouth.

Click here to view the “mouth art” that Doug draws, with a pencil in his mouth.

We are all here for a reason. What is not obvious, is what we are here for. We must discover this on our own.

What do you think? If you know this to be false, will you help the rest of us understand?

Pray Pay Obey Catholic

What does that mean exactly? Growing up Luthern, in a small Pennsylvania town, there weren’t many Catholics. In fact, I don’t recall knowing what a Catholic was until college.

Well, life comes full circle and here I am, a devoted Catholic for over a decade. There are something like 15,000 members of our Holy Family congregation. All walks of like.

One of them, I see occasionally at Gold’s Gym. We recently had a nice conversation with these highlights:

Draw nearer to God and God will draw nearer to you. James 4:8.

True love doesnt force anything.

Greed, sloth, doubt, hypocracy – the four points in the circle surrounding the four squares.

Pay, pray and obey Catholic. This is how my friend (60-something) described himself.

God does not want good men in heaven, he wants Saints.

Gotta go. Time to work on praying, obeying, paying and demonstrating.

Guest Blogger Returns

We don’t think about death often enough. Why? No idea. Fear, maybe. Not socially acceptable, maybe. I’m not really sure.

But I do know that no one I know thinks death should be dinner table talk.

At the end of the day though, people will talk at the dinner table about us after we’re gone. Some for a few seconds, some for a few days, others may never. And some may never stop.

Here’s a fresh perspective…on “legacy”…

Bob Stewart shares an 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