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| Newsletter "From the Heart" |
| Micah 6:8 | My ninth-grade confirmation mentee needed to pick a favorite Bible verse as a part of the requirements for being confirmed this spring. Forty-six years ago I was about to be confirmed somewhere in Columbus Ohio with a bunch of kids several years my junior. I was in the seminary and hadn’t been confirmed yet, even though Catholic kids usually got the face-slap while in grade school. The Superior Diocese was more of a frontier at that time, I think, and the Bishop, like a circuit rider, hadn’t made it to Spooner before I left for the Joesphenum.
At that time, as a part of the confirmation ceremony, each candidate got a tap on the cheek to remind us that we needed to be ready to stand up for and perhaps to suffer for our faith. We had to pick a confirmation name, after a saint. I picked Jude Thaddeus, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, because I was struggling with my vocation. The only woman at the Josephinum was about 70 and the cook, and she was looking REALLY good about then. It was not to be the last time I fell hard for an older woman, and this was long before The Graduate. We also had to be ready to be quizzed by the bishop on things like the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which I kept confusing with the seven deadly sins. Somehow sloth seemed like it should be a good thing. Any way, I wasn’t asked a question and the tap wasn’t teeth-rattling like I had been told. There WAS a tremendous thunder storm happening and it did make it all very dramatic. I asked a college student at the seminary, Frank Fortkamp, to be my sponsor. He gave me a book called The Imitation of Christ. I KNEW I was confirmed when it was all said and done.
I have been a mentor at our church now for my fourth time and it’s really interesting to compare and contrast their experience to mine, which I never share. But I have given much thought to what is my favorite verse and I have to say that what resonates the most with me is the sixth chapter of Micah, the eighth verse: “He has told you, O Man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
I’m not sure where it has come from, but I have had a deep-seated sense of justice in me from my first remembered thoughts. I’m not talking fairness, necessarily, as in, “That’s not fair, Ma!” I noticed the kids who were treated differently in school. I saw the way poorer folks were treated in town. I heard the condescension and saw the biases in action. This didn’t keep me from being a jerk at times, alas, but it nagged at me.
To be kind is not an easy path if you’re not a natural-born saint. Sometimes it seems my first nature is to be snarky and bitchy and sarcastic. And that can be great fun. Being snotty is easy, let the chips fall where they may! It’s a whole lot easier to complain about something than to actually do something about it. That way it’s always someone else’s responsibility to make things better. I traveled that path a long time. It wasn’t that I wasn’t kind; I just could have been a whole lot kinder. In the ‘60’s Tom Lehrer said in a lead up to his song, “National Brotherhood Week,” that there were people in the world who were prejudiced and he hated people like that. I have been there too, and not too tongue-in-cheek about it either.
Humility can also be a challenge to a showboat like me. I am comfortable in the spotlight and can always come up with something to say no matter what. What I have learned over the years is to spread that spotlight around, especially at work. I may be the head guy, but all the good that happens for those we serve happens in the other offices in my building. I am truly humbled by my team mates’ passion and how they make the mission live. I am in awe of folks who overcome deficits I never had to face, who struggle daily for what I take for granted. There are a lot of men and women in Malawi I have known when they were here, who struggle every day to train teachers to educate the young of their country. I am humbled by their lives.
Justice is as necessary as air. Kindness is grace put to work. Humility is a reality check. All three combined equal a good life.
So tell me:
What do you do for justice sake?
What kindness have you done for no reason lately?
What kindness has been done to you?
How do you keep your head from getting too big?
Get back to me and let me know your answers.
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This has been something "From the Heart" Vol. 8 # 3 © 2008
Dave Aardappel, Alpha Coach
920 451-1588
920 451-0255 FAX
DaveAardappel@alpha-coach.com
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Challenge: Write down and share your favorite passage, aphorism or philosophy that sums up your take on life.
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Totally Useless Trivia Question of the Week: What is the first great truth of Buddha?
Totally Useless Answer to last time's Useless Question: Name a set of siblings who have each won Oscars. Well, I was thinking Shirley McClain and Warren Beatty, but this last season the Coen Brothers won for “No Country for Old Men,” as well.
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