Passion and Service

I am Catholic. I love the Mass, but in the past I have sometimes found that my mind wanders a great deal when I'm at church. There is a lot of repetition, and it can be hard to keep attending to the same words week after week.

I've often wondered how priests manage daily Mass and several on the weekends. They not only say the same prayers over and over, but if they give mulitple Masses they get to constantly repeat their sermons.

On Friday, December 8, we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This past year or so we have frequently attended a church where the music is inspiring and the priest clearly loves what he does. When I looked at the priest on Friday, it occurred to me that this man loves praying the Mass. I think he looks forward to Holy days because it gives him an excuse to offer more Masses.

This priest glows with his love for God and his passion for what he does. Needless to say, he has inspired a lot of people, myself included. I look forward to Mass at his church.

Switchfoot strikes me as being a lot like Father Mark. They love what they do so much that they will sometimes find a local coffee shop where they can play after completing a concert. These are people who are clearly doing what they choose to do with their lives. In the process, they have inspired many.

It makes me wonder: do people who follow their passions tend to be those who make more of a difference to others? Switchfoot has touched a lot of lives. Father Mark has also touched many.

Father Mark and the members of Switchfoot serve others while living passionate lives. I wonder what the world would be like if we all did the same.

Elton John Wants To Ban Religion

Elton John says that if he had it his way, organized religion would be banned. He thinks they promote hatred against gays. Sir John states that religion "turns people into really hateful lemmings."

These are strong words. I’ve always enjoyed Elton John’s music, and I was saddened by his attitude.

I can’t speak for all religions, but I know that many of them don’t think the gay lifestyle is morally acceptable. That is completely different from promoting hatred towards gays. Though you will find homophobic individuals within any religion, it doesn’t mean that the religion promotes it.

As much as I dislike what Sir John said, it should give members of organized religion something to think about.

Elton John may be wrong about what churches promote, but he is right about some individuals within a church. Some Christians and members of other organized religions can be pretty self-righteous and can come across as though they are full of hate.

I’m proud to say that I’m a Christian, but I have been attacked by Christians of other denominations. When struggling with chronic illness, I’ve been told that I pray wrong, or I don’t have enough faith. Some Christians think that they need to “save” me because they believe that the teachings of my church are wrong.

Then again, it’s not only Christians who can act this way. My daughter has had people say some pretty nasty things to her by atheists. It seems that if she states any kind of opinion in agreement with her Church, they stop listening and start yelling.

Christians should be better than this. Jesus accepted everybody. You can think somebody is sinning and still love the sinner. Remember that you’re a sinner, too.

Sir John, I disagree with you completely. You need to separate the members of a church from what the church actually teaches and promotes. Organized religion has done an awful lot of good in the world. Just because they don’t condone the gay lifestyle doesn’t mean they should be banned. If somebody espouses hate while claiming to be “religious”, that doesn’t mean the church teaches hate.

If a number of musicians preached hatred, you wouldn’t want to ban music.

To members of organized religion, keep in mind that Elton John speaks for many. It’s not just hatred of the gay lifestyle that is a problem, it’s the superiority and self-righteousness of some that harms us all.

You might not like with Sir John says, but maybe it’s time to learn from him.

Giving

We often hear about people inspiring others. Some inspire us by the way they approach the struggles in their lives. Often we find art, music, or good writing inspirational. Bravery and selflessness, such as that demonstrated when people risk their own lives to save others, has the same effect.

But what does it mean to be inspired?

This question is on my mind a lot because, as anybody who has read my previous entries knows, I was just at the best concert of my life. It was....yup, here's the word...inspirational. I've been to some good concerts in my lifetime, but this was way above anything I've ever seen.

In fact, I'm not the only one saying that. Check out this blog from another fan who came to the same conclusion.

The evening was so memorable that I want to find a way to say "thanks" to Switchfoot. After reading more about them, I realized that they have a passion for making the world a better place. What better way to give back than to try to do the same thing?

I started a new thread at the message boards at Switchfoot.com. The thread asked for ideas on how to give back to a band that has given us so much pleasure.

There weren't very many responses. I then suggested we find a way to make small differences. I wasn't talking about major efforts; I was just suggesting we do things like noticing who needs a kind word that day or other similar efforts. We could post what we do as a gift to Switchfoot. It would directly show Switchfoot the ways they impact others.

It surprised me how quickly that thread died.

What about you? What do you do when something moves you? Do you let it make a difference, or just enjoy the feeling of inspiration while it lasts?

Think about this: if enough people made a conscious effort to do something each week to make the world better, even something that seems small, the impact would be huge.

The next time you feel inspired by somebody, find a way to give back. You never know how you might change a life.


We were meant to live for so much more!

Switchfoot Fallout

I still can't talk coherently about the concert after four days. The best way I can express it is to say that I continue to have what some Switchfoot fans call a "concert hangover." I need to go to another concert, and today wouldn't be too soon.

During the concert I found myself thinking, who are these guys? This was a night well beyond all my expectations, and my expectations were pretty high.

I promised in my last post to tell you about the meet-and-greet. After the concert we waited around awhile at the venue. Eventually all those with passes were gathered into one area, and the rest of the fans were asked to leave.

My smile started to grow at this point, knowing we'd be meeting the guys who had just given us such an indescribable night.

I was talking to my daughter and happened to look up in time to see the drummer, Chad, and the keyboardist/guitarist, Jerome, coming towards us. They walked up to us and introduced themselves in such a humble manner, as though we wouldn't know who they were. Then they really made my day; they both mentioned that they had noticed my daughter during the concert. They pointed to the spot on the balcony where she had been standing. This was so much more than she expected.

But wait, it gets better. The next person we met was Jon, the lead singer. He also said words to the effect of "yeah, I remember you, you were standing right there" and pointed to where my daughter had been standing.

I think she's still floating. Three of the five band members noticed her during the concert.

Ultimately we met all five. They gave autographs and allowed pictures. Every one of them came across as the type of people anybody would love to have as friends.

Somebody asked me if I lost my ability to speak when I met them. Unfortunately, I didn't. Instead I was a babbling fool. Thankfully, they're probably used to people like that.

After we left the building I saw Jon walk out. He passed some people who had their backs to him, said "hi", and kept walking. The fans he had just passed turned to look, and you could see by their expressions what they were thinking.

Jon was grinning. He knew he'd just made somebody's night.

This blog is about people who make a difference. I want to once more thank Katherine from Foot Soldiers Headquarters for allowing the meet-and-greet. Thanks to her, a memorable night was made even more memorable.

As for Switchfoot, I think the best way to thank them will be to talk about some of their causes in future blogs.

There's one more thing I can do for them. I can try to make the lives of others better the way they made mine better.

Switchfoot

This seems to be the year for meet-and-greets. On Monday I received word that we'd won a meet-and-greet for a Switchfoot concert in Minneapolis. We won the tickets through a contest sponsored by Artist Arena.

I want to publicly thank Katherine from Foot Soldiers Headquarters for allowing this honor.

I also want to thank Switchfoot for a memorable evening. I can't write much about it yet because I can't do justice in words to the incredible night we had.

What I can say, though, is that if you have the opportunity to see Switchfoot in concert, don't even think of missing it. I love their CDs (which is obvious, it's the only reason we'd drive that far for a concert) but their live performance put the CDs to shame.

My daughter is 14 and I'm ... well, I'm not considered young anymore, but both of us thought this was the best concert we'd ever been to. It's now 24 hours later and we're still in awe, still basking in the glow.

After the concert I found that these guys are incredibly down-to-earth. I'll write more about that later, too.

My words, when I find them, are going to be completely inadequate.