Why the Catholic Church?

For months I imagined posting a blog where I laid out a big theological argument for Catholicism and why I have been drawn to the Catholic Church. Now, however, thanks to what I have gleamed from the wisdom of my wife, I simply want to focus on Christ. I want to focus on the fullness of Christ and that which I never would have seen without the Catholic Church.

Far from "Silent Night" or snow covered fields of majestic stillness, the birth of Jesus teaches us something stunning about how God gives His grace to us. Nothing is silent or still about birth, trust me, I've watched two! At Christmas we're reminded that the most abundant gifts of God's grace take a physical form. Everything about the incarnation is physical. The whole life of Christ, from His painful birth, to his agonizing death, teach us, that our sinful state requires a physical remedy. This is the core of Catholic Sacramental teaching, that God's grace comes in physical form. This reality, is not only true of the incarnation and Christ's death, which reconciles us with God, it is also true for how God changes us. We are not changed by signs and symbols, but by the life giving bread and the saving cup.

This has changed Christmas for me. Silent Night isn't Silent Night because of an idealistically quiet baby or a peaceful birth. It is Silent because of the presence of the Holy God. As I sat today around the burning candles and kneeling parishioners at St. John Newman Church, this reality silenced and calmed my busy, distracted mind. As I repented for my selfishness I was relieved to actually find myself distracted from focusing on myself. The beauty of the Holy, Perfect Child, our Emmanuel, seemed, however vaguely, present. Present enough to leave me hungry for more. In the end, this is what Christmas is all about, what C.S. Lewis called, "cultivating a hunger for God." The Catholic Church doesn't teach, and I don't believe, that somebody has to be Catholic to experience Christ. Wanting to experience more of Christ, however, has led me here, and since I seem to have fallen of the face of the earth to many of you, I thought it would be good to share my thoughts with you this Christmas.

Love in Christ and Merry Christmas, Jeremy

The Mercy of Parenting

I had a really great idea...as we planned to leave for Louisiana I thought it would be good to begin our second day driving as early as possible. If we left at 4:00 A:M I would be able to get in several hours of peaceful driving before the girls woke up. I relished visions of driving down an empty road, cup of coffee in hand, with peaceful sleeping babies in the back. Ahhh....

This is when you know you've become a really lame grown up, when you find yourself day dreaming about a peaceful road trip. Don't get me wrong, I love spending the time with my family. But, there's just something about changing your fifth dirty diaper at a rest area in 100 degree heat in Alabama that makes flying seem like a better idea.

So anyway, I put my plan into action at 4:15 A:M. I packed us up from Erin's grandmother's house in North Carolina, put the girls in the car, apolgized to Erin for insisting we left so early, and took my seat. All was going according to plan, except for one thing, we were low on gas. When I stopped to fill up at 5:45, the girls woke up....for good. Within twenty minutes my vision of a perfect peaceful morning was turned upsidedown. Karis was throwing up, Grace was crying in dramatic hunger pains, and Erin was revisiting the issue of my judgment in getting us all up so early.

As I looked in the rear-view mirror at Karis' sad and sleepy face I was struck with my own selfishness. I had planned the morning arond fulfilling my own vision of autonomous freedom. I did not want to be hindered with baby troubles. God's purposes in using babies as sanctifying tools of redemption are staggering. Jesus insisted that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, we must recieve it as a child (Mark 10). A child... utterly dependant, utterly helpless, and utterly needy. This is what we are, and in realizing this, we come to see the face of a Father, who is more fatherly than anything we could have imagined. For me, this is the mercy of parenting.

trying to get kisses

I never had the desire to kiss anybody with a “drooling problem” until I became a dad. How things change…I often trick Karis into giving me kisses by holding a yummy strawberry or something in between my teeth. She goes for the food and accidently gives me a sweet little kiss in the process. Then she gives a cute little giggle as she realizes she’s fallen for the same trick again.

"story time" gone wrong

Grace's favorite part of her bedtime routine is of course, "story-time." Every night we do two "Grace and Eli (her best friend)" stories and one "Jesus story". Grace has developed a very high standard for what she calls, "good stories" and "not such a good story." So last night, we didn't put her down until after nine, I thought she was falling asleep during her story so I didn't put too much effort into making it good. In fact, I didn't even know what I was talking about I was so sure she was sleeping. In the middle of it though, Grace sat up asking for some clarification as clearly my story had not made sense.

I felt guilty for not making it a better story so I got on my game immediatlely. I quickly turned a simple story about a day at the zoo into a dramatic action thriller, with my wife falling into the lions den. If your thinking there's something wrong with me for telling a two year old such an awful story, I agree. I was in the moment, what can I say? Mom was going to get rescued of course, but by the time I made the most life-like lion growl that I could muster, Grace was deep under the covers squeezing me for dear life. At first I thought she was playing along, but I quickly realized that she was quite scared. Thankfully she let me "try again". I ended up doing a story about a petting zoo where Grace got to take home a baby deer. Thankfully two-year olds forgive and forget better than we do. Peace, Jeremy

Very Funny Youtube, Thanks Village Church!

Funny youtube!