A day late and a buck short... except not really

I feel obligated to tell you that I’ve never really been a fan of prewriting or rough drafts or outlines. I’ve always been a fan of just jumping in and getting going on the writing. Despite that, the following is what came after a hand-written rough draft — so maybe things change sometimes? You be the judge if this is for the better.

Also, on a quick side note: It appears that along with the vanishing of whatever sickness has been ailing me, my writer’s block has lifted as well. Praise God!

But anyway…

In the lull between GreaterWorks assigned books, I’ve found myself with a little more time to spend with a book I’ve literally been trying to read for years. I received my copy of Ilia Delio’s The Humility of God over two years ago during an internship at St. Anthony Messenger Press in the book department. Between school and other books and life I never really got around to starting it until this summer in South Dakota. For anyone who knows anything about YouthWorks!, you might suspect that this is not the best time to start a highly anticipated, long time coming book. Your suspicions would be largely correct. Since then I’ve managed a chapter here or there, usually around bedtime… but nothing too consistent.

So this was the first week I’ve really sat down to read it. I’ve struggled up to this point to really connect with the book despite finding the ideas behind it very interesting. It is funny how God works. The chapter I read this week felt like it was written for me right now. I would read and reread paragraphs just to make sure I hadn’t missed a single point.

I especially appreciated a quote from Thomas Merton (who I may be slightly partial to as he once was a professor at St. Bonaventure):

“What we are asked to do at present is not so much to speak of Christ as to let him live in us so that people may find him by feeling how he lives in us.”

This is how I view what I am doing here in Booneville. At the Boys and Girls Club or the Booneville Human Development Center or wherever else I go, I am not necessarily speaking of Christ so much as I am striving to let him shine through what I am doing.

Today I had the opportunity to travel to Little Rock with the junior high students from my church for a rally, which ended with Mass. During the homily, the priest discussed the idea that everything we do is a testimony to our lives as Christians and our faith — the question is: are our choices and actions a positive or negative testimony?

I feel like in a small town such as Booneville, it is highly likely most of the population has some basic idea of who I am what I am doing here. Now my challenge is to make sure my choices and actions are a positive testimony to Christ and to what I am here for. How am I choosing to live my life? After this year, what will I take with me? I am not exactly sure how to answer the latter question just yet…

But I leave you with a particular passage that caught my interest from The Humility of God and challenge you to think about it in the context of your own life:

“If we truly believed that Christ is the center of our life and world, that each of us is a member of the body of Christ, and that body is incomplete without us, that the fullness of Christ encompasses all peoples, all races, religions and cultures, indeed the entire universe, would we harm our neighbor? Injure or abuse the earth? Kill our enemies? Ignore the poor, the homeless or the outcasts of our society? Pursue wealth, power and control? If we really truly believed that all is Christ, would we continue to crucify Christ? Or would we act according to the law of Jesus: love, mercy and compassion? Would we be willing to lay down our lives out of love for the sake of the other? If we truly believed that Christ is the center of the universe, would we be so private about the good news we hold so sacred?”

Easy questions with simple answers, right? Or are they? What would our lives answer?


Becca