Restart for 2016

From Google:

It's been a long while.  I ran 2 blogs during college and shortly after but failed to keep up when life got busy.  I had no clue that college was going to be about the easiest accomplishment of my adult life so far.  This was a vain attempt at being a theologian and, after careful review, I am not a theologian.  The other blog is a satirical, but mostly true, account of my fatherhood experience up to son #1's first birthday.  The flavor is not something I wanted to focus on anymore and it has been made private so that maybe one day I can show the kids what I was thinking (or not) as a young father and husband.

Instead, I will focus this blog on raising my family as best I know how and on wasting as little Grace as possible.  The humor will carry because there are children involved and, as any parent will tell you:  Children + Life has great comedic potential.

My name is Mark.  I'm a husband and a father.  I [still] waste a LOT of Grace.

Mountains vs. Souls

Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.
- CCC 150

If God can move mountains, why can't He move a soul?

To God, our human soul is infinitely heavier than a mountain.


This concept is not immediately obvious; however, upon further examination, the statement is intuitively correct and has serious implications when applied to our crosses and to grace. Here is why:

God rules over everything with total power and control. If He desired, He could lift up a mountain and throw it crashing into the sea. Unlike mountains, our souls posses FREE WILL and can reject God. We have the inherent GOD GIVEN ability to say, "No."

Take a minute to think about the great "achievements" of God. First and second place are a toss up between the creation of the world from NOTHING and the redemption of mankind through His Son. The gravity of those two greatnesses is boarder line mind blowing. Very wise and holy men have spent lifetimes pondering these great truths and we still barely understand their ins and outs. Now, if you will, think about all the things God has done that are above human comprehension--even BIGGER than Creation and Redemption.

What does not appear on His list is the forcible moving of a human soul towards Himself. God can move an entire world into existence (mountains and all) but can not move a human soul without the soul's consent.

What He CAN do is give us grace and whisper into our mind's ear and tell us He loves us. Understanding Something somewhere has willed a soul into being AND loves it no matter what will free the said soul to be lighter than air. If one recognizes that everything he is, or ever will be, comes from God, even if what God has for him is painful, and that He is trying to get you to receive His love in a more perfect way, then that human soul will gladly and lovingly follow the LORD--and be MOVED. The key first step that has to be a personal choice is the soul's consent.

My friends, when we say no, we WASTE GRACE. I've wasted a lot of grace by not giving consent, not recognizing God's love in my life or by being a human soul that was heavier than a mountain.