Progress, Not Perfection

Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Sometimes, when I am struggling to love my friends and family, I think about what a HUGE task it is to love our enemies. We often do not use the word "enemy" too much these days, so let's take a moment to think about what Jesus was talking about when he said to love our enemies. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us. Perhaps we have been wronged by someone, an organisation, a company, a family member. The point that Jesus is making here is that it is easy to love people who love us and are kind to us. But, it is harder to love people who treat us poorly. For me, I also find it hard to accept that I might not be able to change those people, in fact I probably won't be able to change them. The only person I have that kind of control over is myself. It takes courage to change. But Jesus calls for radical change in the way that we think, the way we speak, and the way that we love. I had

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice  ( Philippians 4:4) As we know, each week of advent has a theme and this week coming up, the theme is Joy. During this season, it can be easy to feel the stress of life with school, work, and family commitments. But it is important to think about the amazing gifts of God and the marvelous coming of God's son that we are preparing for during advent. I often find myself turning to the Psalms when I am seeking a prayer because I like the idea of praying a song that was written so long along and yet still holds true. For this week, I offer you Psalm 71. Psalm 71:18-24   New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) So even to old age and gray hairs,     O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might      to all the generations to come. Your power  and your righteousness, O God,      reach the high heavens. You who have done great things,      O God, who is like you?   You who have made me see many troubles a

There are events in life that happen which totally change how we see the world, how we live, and how we love others. When these things happen, it can feel like we are starting life over again. For example, I sometimes think back to high school and I feel like that was a totally different life. Who I am now is so different, and yet the same. It is a wonderful example of life's paradoxical nature. This was on my mind in the last week because my Grandpa had a heart attack last Thursday. He has been in the hospital and is making a slow recovery, but he has heart failure which means that his heart is no longer functioning the way that it should be. Because of this, he has to follow a very strict diet, weigh himself every morning, sleep in certain positions, and many more things. This is going to be a total change in his life. At 76 years old, it is like he is starting a new life. It is hard to imagine that our lives can continue to change and totally turn us around. I think a lot

Everyone experiences faith differently in their lives. It can be unfair to proclaim one's faith as stronger or more serious than another person's since everyone's relationship with God is different. James Fowler wrote about how faith develops throughout our lives and I had the pleasure of reading a lot of his work during my undergraduate degree. I found a graphic that summarizes his stages of faith development to save you four years of intensive study: When we are very young, our idea of faith is quite limited. We copy the things that our parents do, but according to Fowler, we do not really have an understanding of spiritual concepts just yet. Jumping to adolescence, one can see that in the struggle that teens have to form their own identities, they question religious values of their parents and communities. This is a normal part of growing up. We do this in many aspects of our lives, so it would be kind of strange if no teens questions the religious beliefs of t

Do you ever feel like someone doesn't care about you? Conversely, have you ever been told by someone that they feel like you don't like them? This can happen quite easily because everyone has a different way of expressing love, and want to receive love in different ways. Dr. Gary Chapman has written about this dilemma and came up with the five love languages.  1. Words of Affirmation When people have this as their love language, it means that they feel loved when people express compliments and appreciation verbally. People with this love language might be more likely to write love letters to others and give sincere apologies.  2. Acts of Service For this love language, people often do things to ease the burden of others. People with this love language are likely offer to do things for someone or pamper a loved one. They are good at making behaviour changes after a conflict. 3. Quality Time These people are the type to keep their phone away when they are wi

Why do we suffer? What is the meaning of our pain? These are tough questions, and for many of us, it feels like there aren't answers. I went to church at King's University College this past Sunday and one part of the homily really stuck out to me. He said that he wants to write a book titled, "Gifts That Suck", since so many of the bad things that happen in life seem to be the path that lead us to know God more, understand ourselves, and bring us closer to others. I really thought about this is my own life, and I realized that this is true for me as well. There are times when it feels like everything is going wrong, you know? Like when you get a bad mark on a test that you studied hard for, and your friends aren't being supportive of you, and when you finish the show you have been binge watching on Netflix. Some things are easier to get over than others. But let me tell you this: I had a really hard time in my first year of university. I didn't really kn

Several years ago, I watched a Ted Talk by David Brooks which is titled, "Should you live for your resume...or your eulogy?". I particularly love this video because it taught me the importance of thinking about thinking in terms of how others are impacted by me. Click here to view the video . "Adam one's motto is success, Adam two's motto is love, redemption, and return" Have you ever felt that these two aspects of yourself are at odds? Unfortunately in our world, there is often a difference between doing things for the sake of love and doing things that will bring us success. Furthermore, sometimes the distinction between the two is so broad that we feel we cannot possibly choose. It can be simple things, little decisions that you make every day which can build into these two models of virtue. What do you chose to do when you wake up in the morning? Do you choose to think about God? It can be so hard when we are caught up in the day to day success-se

I read an article this week titled, "12 Reasons Millennials are OVER Church"  written by Sam Eaton which did something really awesome: the author explained a problem and then offered various solutions to that issue. One of the issues that the author addressed was that people do not feel included in their Church or they do not feel like they fit in with other people. Here is what is written, There is this life-changing movie all humans must see, regardless of gender. The film is of course the 2004 classic “Mean Girls”. In the film, the most popular girl in school forgets to wear pink on a Wednesday (a cardinal sin), to which Gretchen Weiners screams, “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!” Today, my mom said to me “church has always felt exclusive and ‘cliquey,’ like high school.” With sadness in her voice she continued, “and I’ve never been good at that game so I stopped playing.” The truth is, I share her experience.  As do thousands of others. Until the church finds a way t

In John's gospel, we see a very high Christology in that the introduction already tells us that, spoiler alert, Jesus is God. We have the incredible experience of reading this text, which is one of our oldest declarations that Jesus and God are One. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.    He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being  in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. While poetic and beautiful to read, the beginning of John's gospel also tells us that this man is the one that the scriptures told us about, many generations before. The gospel writer calls Jesus "the Word" and describes how the Word was part of the creation of all things. We see something quite similar in Proverbs, but instead of the Word, they are speak

Welcome to the Dublin Youth Blog! I have never thought of myself as a "blogger" so to speak, but here I am writing my first blog post for all of you. This is exciting for me because this will be able to be a central place where both youth and parents can come for thoughts, reflections, prayers, and updates from me. I hope that you will be able to take something from this and that it will be fruitful for us all. There are many things that I hope to be able to share with you through this blog. In my ideal world, both youth and parents would read this (maybe even together!) as a spiritual exercise each week. I know that we all have busy lives, and it seems like sometimes there isn't a place or space for God. As an exercise in being vulnerable, I will share with you that even the thought of being accountable for writing a blog each week is making me question when I will find the time to do this. I stand firm in saying that you have time for what you make time for. I u