What's Up

Wow, what a day! I was so busy and so consumed with all that had to be done. I was able to add to the tasks of the day by being open to the life that was around me. I saw so many people smile at the opportunity to live life. What joy I saw in people that finally had a story to tell. What simple stories they were, but so profound in that the decision to share was awesome. I learned about a guy that needed to buy a new car. I learned that a woman I work with is planning a trip to Georgia, and I learned one woman I work with is Catholic, and she is searching for a connection to life.

All of these people are trying to connect to something. All are trying to live the life that was given to them by God. How do I live that connection every day? Sometimes I'm good at it and I am full of life, but sometimes I am selfish and only think of myself. How does that occur? Shouldn't we by God's gift to us be filled with the desire to serve and to think of everyone but ourselves? But somehow it always turns around to me?

What I wonder about is whether it really can be about others if it isn't about us? Aren't the others supposed to be concerned about us? So isn't it really all about me anyway? Does that even make any sense?

What does make sense is that if we are all concerned about others then the "me" concern fades away because our needs are filled. This is so true most especially in marriage. When I think about the gift that the man brings to the marriage, it overwhelms me.  Jeff is called to love me like Christ loves the Church! Wow, what a tall order that is for him. When you think about it that means he is called to die for me! What does that really mean?

I like to think of this concept in the form of a story. Think about a mother and a father in the hospital room with a child that is near death and a decision needs to be made about the life of the child. The decision needs to be made about whether to pull the plug to allow the life of the child to be maintained on its own or to expire on its own. There is not a mother in the world that I know of that wants to make that decision. In a traditional marriage, the mother has the gift of the husband to take the role as the head of the household to make the decision. He is the ultimate provider in that he steps forward to make the decision by allowing God to make the decision through him.   He allows his wife, the mother, to be freed from that decision. What a gift he has given to his wife and family! He took the difficult road and died to himself in order to give life to those he loves the most. How Christ-like the husband and father is in this story.  Isn't that about the others in his family, but still about him?

He doesn't need a certain type of wife to be this type of leader. He can be married to the best stay at home mom in the world or the most committed mother who works outside of the home and still be the leader by showing his strength at moments like these.

What's up is that this world is made of so many good men like this and we sometimes forget to build them up. I take my hat off to all the men that lead like Christ - men that lead through compassion and service rather than through recognition and position.

That's what's up in my world. A man that loves me for who I am, and a man that is strong at all times, but with a heart as big as the world that let's me be and continue to grow into a woman that God can use for so many things. That’s what I see in the story of the people around me. Great men that are such an awesome gift from God.

I'll talk to you again soon.

Eileen