In a World of Negativity, Think Positive
There’s a lot of junk happening lately and lots of bad stuff happening in the world. We’ve got gigantic problems in Washington, we’re
fighting a war in the Middle East where there hasn’t been peace, well, ever. We’re constantly facing persecution for being “moral, ethical citizens”. Babies are being destroyed for the sake of convenience and preference. A good deal of the time, it doesn’t seem like anything is ever going to get better.
Look on the bright side, we have lots to be thankful for. Someone, somewhere has it much, much worse than you or me. Belly-achin’ and complainin’ about stuff isn’t going to make anything better. Yes, there are plenty of really horrible things taking place in our world, but they shouldn’t effect our daily lives from being focused and centered on Christ.
Imagine how badly St. Paul had it… beatings, being stoned, imprisonment and so on! (Read Philippians 2:12-18.)
Thinking positively helps us take a bad situation and turn it into something decent. There’s serious power in the reality of the power of positive thought. I encourage everyone to try three things over the next three days, and see if your attitude changes.
- Refrain from complaining.
- Find a positive side to everything.
- Do something kind for someone else at least once a day.
After three days, after you’ve tried these three things, comment back, or email, or post on Facebook, or wherever. I want to know what you experienced.
Man up!
What We Should Be Most Thankful For
Happy Thanksgiving 2009 everyone! It’s quite easy for us to forget about things in our life that we are (or that we should be) thankful for. It’s easy to go through life taking for granted the wonderful blessings we have. Sometimes, especially when it seems like the entire world is falling apart around us, we can’t see the blessings. I tend to think that we can’t see those things because we can’t get past our own wants and desires and our attitude gets in our own way.
What we should be most thankful for is the perfect blessing, the greatest gift… the Eucharist. Did you know that the world eucharist means thanksgiving? When you’re down and out, struggling and allowing your poor attitude to get in your own way, do you run to the Eucharist? When you’ve got everything going for you, and you are striving for holiness, do you run to the Eucharist? No matter where you are in life, or how good or bad your day has been, the Eucharist should be your stronghold. I think that men sometimes struggle with the teachings of the Eucharist because men are called to submit fully to Christ and this gift. Typically, men don’t like to submit; submission is a sign of weakness and loss of control. In this case, submission to Christ in the Eucharist is key! If you want to grow in TrueManhood and you want to live the virtue of love (the GREATEST VIRTUE!), run to the Eucharist!!!
Christ instituted this gift, a pure gift of Himself, to sustain us and to guide us. The Eucharist is the one part of our faith that unites us most intimately with Christ. We give thanks for this “bread from Heaven”, what the Church refers to as “the source and summit”. We tend to think of movie characters like William Wallace or Maximus Decimus Meridius when we think of leadership, sacrifice and real manliness. Christ outshines them; this gift was an incredibly hard sacrifice to make… the hardest ever. Christ lead the Church towards His Father through this miraculous gift. I invite you to learn about the Eucharist and then, as I stated above, run to the Eucharist!
For those who either aren’t Catholic or who aren’t educated Catholics, I want to encourage you to read what the Catholic Church teaches about the Eucharist. This is the MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF OUR FAITH and many believers don’t know about it nor could they explain it. To start learning, please click this link for more info.
Man up!
