I'll see you there...

The direction of my life has shifted in major ways over the years. I've gone through seasons of being driven and focused on my goals, seasons of despair when it feels like no matter how hard I try, my tires just won't get traction anymore, seasons of victory and purpose that invigorated my spirit, and seasons of drifting aimlessly from day to day. Over a year ago, a fire was lit in me to start this blog and learn to embrace my past and my experiences in a positive way. I set out to learn to enjoy the depth of my memories instead of dwelling on the fear of how many years I had put behind me. You have all given me a blessing that I will never be able to repay by joining me in this journey. For that, from the bottom of my heart I thank you. But, this isn't a goodbye post. My life has taken another series of twists and turns lately and my focus has been on my family and the challenges we have been facing. But, I am reminded of the story of Job. No matter what tests, challenges, and suffering that the Lord put before him, Job never failed to praise His name and endured. Now, with that being said, let me tell you a story that means the world to me in the light of our current world.

I have referred to a close friend of mine multiple times in this blog. Zach is a passionate crusader, theologian, and brother of mine. When I turned my life back to my faith, this man was there to teach, to challenge, and to walk beside me as I took my baby steps back into scripture, prayer, building better habits, and battling my personal demons. He has been my compass time and time again. Since the beginning of the Nostalgia Blog, Zach and I have had a continuous dialogue concerning our mutual growth in our faith. He, a passionate protestant, and I, a novice Catholic have had some powerful and enlightening conversations. We started off slowly, deciding the core differences between our beliefs. Common subjects like the eucharist, praying for the intersession of the saints, the Pope, and many more were cautiously brought up, but always respectfully and lovingly explored. Zach has always met my beliefs with the utmost respect and reverence...even when he unbudgingly stands his ground in his beliefs. I, having been raised around a protestant church, have always had respect for church traditions. But church wasn't at the heart of my family as a child. The belief was always there, but the knowledge wasn't. To put it simply, I've always been a Christian and never doubted that the Lord was real...I just didn't know anything about Him or how to be closer to Him. Not a good position to be in...

Fast forward to now. My constant conversation with Zach has grown more in-depth and more serious. I'm no longer a Catholic toddler taking my first steps. I'm beginning to learn to explain and defend my beliefs more effectively. This led to a particularly strong discussion of the teaching of purgatory. We had been tossing scripture and philosophy back and forth for hours. Neither of us changing the other's mind, and neither of us really trying to do so. Simply building our own knowledge through our challenges. It felt like a scrimmage match in apologetics. Every argument's weakness was identified then quickly studied, thought about, and explained. It was a glorious discussion that broadened both of our knowledge of the other and, somehow, seemed to bring us closer together as brothers in faith. Finally, after realizing how long we'd been talking, a joke was made to conclude the conversation..."I hope God doesn't plan for us to die at the same time. I know He has eternity, but he may not have enough time for all of our questions at once." It was a mildly clever joke about how the more we learn, the more we realize we really don't know. Zach's response was quick, "Well, if we get to Heaven at the same time, we'll know I was right. So, see you in Heaven, Brother." I laughed and threw back, "Yes Sir! See you in Purgatory!"

The end of our conversation rang in my head the whole next day. Why can't people seem to understand the value in treating each other this way? Why is it such an oddity to have opposing viewpoints respectfully and jokingly defend their beliefs and remain friends at the same time? Maybe it's ignorant optimism, but that is a mindset that needs to come back. The Christian world was split by the reformation and caused a separation that has affected the entire world for centuries...yet here we were. Zach and I on diametrically opposite ends of the spectrum embracing our differences and still sharing our brotherly love. In fact, through our discussions, I've learned more about my faith than from any other place. And I've been able to bring his viewpoint around from being anti-Catholic to respecting and enjoying learning about our traditions. What a shock! By remaining open and caring about each other, we've both been able to grow as individuals and gain from each other. Who would have thought that?

Now, I'm proud to share what I've learned from Zach with my family and to work every chance I get to instill this way of learning and working together into my children. I hope more than anything that no matter what side of what divide they find themselves in, be it democrat vs republican, Catholic vs protestant, American vs Foreign, or anything in between, that they will always meet challenge with respect, and differences with excitement to learn something new. In the world we live in now, it's far to easy to stand with what you think is right and aggressively condemn anything that stands against you. There is only one absolute truth in this world...everything else is relative. So, to all of you, I invite you to think about how we are all treating our "opponents" in our lives. Are we too quick to become combative or do we take the opportunities we're being given to learn from a new point of view? Never forget, we're all in this together and there's a lot out there we don't know yet. We'd have to all be fools to ignore each other and blindly follow our own thoughts as absolute truth. I hope this thought, now planted in your mind, will grow and produce powerful fruit in your lives...and as always, peace be with you...and game on.

---

¹ If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ² make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. -Philippians 2:1-3-