Musings of a Youth Worker

It has been a year now since I first stepped foot into Big Shoulders CrossFit. It was not of my own direction but simply because one evening I received a text message from my coach Ryan, asking if I was interested in checking out what the gym had to offer.  I always had goals of reaching a certain level of fitness, but was never able to make a lot of progress by myself. When I finished grad-school in 2015 I weighed in at 6'2" and 149 lbs. In laymen's terms borderline malnourished, and I can assure you there was nothing wrong with my appetite. What was wrong with me is that I was not feeding myself properly, nutritionally or physically, and by consequence spiritually as well. From December 2015 until June 2016 I recognized that I needed to make a change and started on a consistent work-out routine. This was successful for a time, I put on about 8 pounds, I was eating well, I was feeling good, but a problem arose. After a few months it became too easy to justify...

In today’s Gospel(11/19/2017), we hear the parable of The Rich Fool. In order to understand the parable that we encounter today, it is important to understand the context in which Christ is telling this  parable. Moments before Christ told this story, there was a man in the crowd, who recognized Jesus’ authority, but misunderstood his message and underestimated his wisdom. The man commands Jesus to order his brother to split his inheritance with him. To which Christ responds saying, “[A man’s]   life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” I t is this conversation that prompts the story that we heard from the Gospel today. To truly understand the selfishness of the wealthy man's actions, we need to first reexamine the beginnings of Genesis, and how God created us. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over a...

The other day I was driving with my mother on the way home from lunch. The sun was shining through the window on the warm August afternoon, it was nice to take a few moments and simply breath the warm air, and enjoy the drive between my house and Chipotle. It is by no means a scenic drive, but it is familiar. Much of the past few weeks had been spent in the office, sitting behind my desk preparing my youth programs for the coming semester at church. My mind was buzzing with lesson plans, event schedules, church calendars, bible parables, and ice breaker games. While I was driving I fell into a sort of afternoon daze, I start counting, out loud, with no actual goal number in mind, to the melody of Row row row your Boat. "One, Two, Three four five, Six, Seven eight nine ten"  Maybe it was the pound of chicken and beans in my stomach, or the hypnotizing August sunshine, but for some reason I found this uncontrollably hilarious. My mother gave me a perplexed look, much like the...