Give Until It Hurts

If you could change anything about the world, what would you change? Why? Let's face it, the world is in desperate need of change. The world is a mess. There is violence everywhere. Sexual promiscuity and deviancy is accepted, even encouraged. We have greedy heads of industry and even greedier politicians. Whether you see it or not, death is surrounding all of us through abortion, assisted suicide, and other forms of murder. We need change.

But how can you, how can I, change the world. We may think, I'm just one person, I can't change anything. We may feel that the powers that have made this world such a mess cannot be overcome. We have a very difficult road ahead of us if we truly want to change the world, if we truly want to bring the principals of Christian love back into this world. But we have to begin somewhere.

So, where do we begin? Do we begin with abortion? Do we begin with the culture of sex? Do we overhaul corporations and the government to remove the greed from them? All lofty goals and worthy causes, but they are too big for us to handle. Where do we begin, then? I think that in order to answer that question, we need to look at how we got here. Matthew Kelly, in  Rediscovering Catholicism says that: "The world is this way because of people like you and me. Our thoughts, words, actions, and inaction have all contributed to create the world today."


Do you want to change the world? Start by changing yourself. We all--all of us, you and me--have contributed to the despair that our culture is currently in. We do this through placing things ahead of people. We do this by putting our selfish desires ahead of everything else. We want to live comfortable lives. We don't want to suffer or sacrifice anything in our lives. I'm a victim of this, too! We all are.

If you want to change the world, give of yourself. Give of yourself without thought of what's in it for you. Give your love, give your time, give your possessions, give your food, give your money. Let go of what you want. Sacrifice everything. Don't just give until you feel better. Give until it hurts.

These is a very difficult challenge. It is a very scary prospect to give it all, to give until it hurts. I don't know if I can do it. But it's what Christ did. He didn't stop giving until he felt better about Himself. He gave until it hurt. And the pain He endured is far greater than the pain we will endure.

Selling the "Catholic" Dream

Working in youth ministry, I am intimately aware of our culture, particularly youth culture. I know what the teens listen to, what they watch, what they wear, and what video games they play. They are all wonderful kids, but they are, as we all are, influenced by our culture.

Robert P. Lockwood, in his book A Guy's Guide to the Good Life: Virtues for Men says that "we're not created by culture, we create culture." He have created the culture we live in, either directly or indirectly. The media, Hollywood, and advertisers have a direct influence on our culture. Magazines, television, and advertisers tell us how we should dress, what we should eat, and how we should live our lives. You and I have had an indirect role in the creation of our culture by buying into the "American Dream" that the media is selling.

Many of us, myself included, just flow with the waves of our culture, allowing it to have an influence on our lives. What we don't realize is that we are being manipulated. We're being manipulated by advertisers to buy their products. We're being manipulated by Hollywood to watch their movies. We're being manipulated by the media to believe in their causes. We, as individuals, have lost our voices.

We have been led to believe that our culture creates us. In reality,  we create our culture. It's time we realize this.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Catholicism is counter-cultural. It's really sad that Catholicism is counter-cultural. It shouldn't be that way. We, as Catholics, need to resist the influence of the culture that is being pushed on us by the media and advertisers. We need to live out our Catholic faith dutifully. We need to be counter-cultural until the tide turns and the principles of Catholicism become mainstream. We need to sell the "Catholic Dream" to everyone we meet through our words and our actions. For as Lockwood also points out: "The goodness we can create in the small moments of our lives can reach far beyond us in ways that we never know."

News Flash: Our Culture Is Telling Us to Jump Over Lakes In Motorcycles

At one of my recent high school youth group meetings I had the opportunity to ask the teens the following question: "What is our culture telling us?" After I posed this question, immediately one eager gentleman raised his hand. I called on him and he asked me the question, "Is MTV our culture?" I responded that MTV is most certainly a part of his culture. I asked him, "What is MTV telling you?" I eagerly anticipated his response. I knew that anything from MTV would be an opportunity to tell the teens how our culture is oftentimes a bad example of how we should live our lives. His response was, "MTV is telling us to jump over lakes in motorcycles!" I thought "This is not the answer I was expecting" as the whole group began to laugh at his response.

After the laughter died down, a bright young lady raised her hand. I called on her and asked her what our culture is telling her. Her response, also not one I expected, was somewhat more deep and thought provoking. She responded with, "Our culture is telling us that it is O.K. to be a failure." Wow! I was floored by her response. I am frequently amazed by the teens I work with. They often have as much to teach me as I have to teach them, and this was one of those times. Our culture does say that it is acceptable to fail.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't believe that it is unacceptable to fail. Lord knows, I have failed many, many times in my life. It is perfectly alright, and natural, to fail, but we need to pick ourselves back up and try again. However this is not what our culture is telling us. Our culture is saying that it is O.K. to fail, because there will be someone else there to pick up your slack. It is O.K. to fail in school, because you are going to move on to the next grade anyway. It is O.K. to fail in life, because the government, or some other entity, will come in to take care of you. Our government will come in and "bail out" anyone who does fail. This is what our culture is telling us.

This line of thought is just wrong, and if we continue down this path we will raise a generation of teens who will grow up and expect someone to fix their problems and failures. If someone comes in and "fixes" our failures then we as individuals have learned nothing about life. We will continue to fail because we will not have learned from our failures. We will also become unnecessarily dependent on others. This is not what Christ intends for us.

Christ gave us a free will to choose what we want in life. If we so choose, we can allow ourselves to fail in life and let others "bail out" our failures. However, Christ wants us to choose to pick ourselves up after our failures and try again. He knows that we will make mistakes and fails. He also understands that it is though our failures that we learn and grow. He doesn't want us to depend unnecessarily on others. He wants us to depend on Him. It is only through depending on Christ that we ultimately find success in this life and the next.