Ever have some amazing, and completely unexpected opportunity sitting in front of you? Me too. What did you do about your opportunity? Has it changed your life, or are you regretting not seizing it?
I’m sitting next to a Pastor right now as I type these words.
Carlos wanted to be a Pastor since he was seven years old, while growing up in Argentina. Carlos’ Father was a vocational Pastor, meaning he worked 40+ years without a salary. He had a full-time paying job, and was a Pastor on top of that. His Father is 79 now and serving the poorest of the poor in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, at Encuemtro Latino.
In the late 1990’s, my phone rang and the person on the other end offered an opportunity to become a professional speaker. Public speaking is our greatest fear, greater than the fear of death.
And I thought to myself, God must want me to become a comedian or a Pastor and this public speaking thing would provide the necessary experience.
When was the last time someone came up to you and asked, “Will you teach me how you do it, since you’re an expert?”
Like never, right? Yeah, me too.
But yesterday that changed. A neighbor, and Pastor, asked if he could “shadow” me and watch the blogging process. He knows I write five different, but interconnected, blogs every morning.
Our first meeting will be in the next few days, at 5:30AM.
Are you dedicated? Are you an expert? Do people ask you for advice?
You’re invited to share tips here if you want. Or, just come along for the ride. God doesn’t waste anything. Everything is used for good, even our mistakes and regrets.
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.
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.”
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.
