I will Make You a Fisher of Men

"Neither wealth, nor pleasure, nor power, nor honor is, in point of fact, the final cause of the will’s activity, Human experience reveals clearly that the attainment of even the greatest worldly goods leaves us still wanting more, still unsatisfied.” Bishop Barron

A man dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter meets him at the pearly gates.
St. Peter says, “Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in.”
“Okay,” the man says, “I attended church every Sunday.”
“That’s good,” says St. Peter, “that’s worth two points.”
“Two points?” he says. “Well, I gave 10% of all my earnings to the church.”
“Well, let’s see,” answers Peter, “that’s worth another 2 points. Did you do anything else?”
“Two points? Golly. How about this: I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans.”
“Fantastic, that’s certainly worth a point, ” he says.
“Hmmm…” the man says, “I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart.”
“That’s wonderful,” says St. Peter, “that’s worth three points!”
“THREE POINTS!!” the man cries. “At this rate the only way I get into heaven is by the grace of God!”
“Come on in!

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater with a degree in business management, I took a job as a manager trainee at Radio Shack. I worked at the Wheaton store. It's volume was just below the mall stores. My boss was a former air traffic controller. He was fired when President Reagan fired them for striking illegally. I loved working for him. He taught me everything I needed to know about running my own store. It was during this time that I started down my path of inviting God into my life. Eventually, I began to realize that it must impact my career choices. I started dating Jan, and getting more involved in the Happening program by joining the service team which was the leadership board.

In March of 1985, I was promoted to the store manager of the Wood Dale Radio Shack. It was in a bad strip mall that was half empty. The previous manager ran it like an old hobby store. The place was in disarray, so I spent the first month turning it into a clean modern retail store. I was able to make it profitable. Yet, my regional manager didn't support me with the employees that I needed. My spiritual life was suffering. I didn't have time to go to church because I was working open to close seven days a week. So, after praying about it for a month, I quit my job without a job. I felt that God was leading me on a different path. I just didn't know what it was. I had been working over seventy hours a week, and I was exhausted. I took a week off. The following Monday, I started to make phone calls. On the first phone call that I made, I found a job working at a bank. I thought that I would try my hand in the banking world.

It didn't take me long to realize that banking wasn't for me. The hours were great. Still, I was not very good at it. I think the cash drawer is supposed to balance every day. Right? The hours allowed me more time to help in the Happening program. I was working on two teams. One team was doing weekends in Kankakee, and one team in Du Page County. Working a weekend would leave me exhausted. After one weekend, I went to a McDonald's for a lunch break and thought I would take a little nap in my car. Big mistake!! I woke up two hours later! On that weekend retreat, I gave a talk about surrender. I came out waving a big white surrender flag. I made little white surrender flags. I challenged each young person to take one and surrender their lives to Christ. There is a big difference between going to weekly Mass and total surrender to Our Lord. Jesus wants your heart. He wants everything. Have you surrendered? Once we surrender, He will fill us with His peace, and take us on a roller coaster ride that will be unbelievable! I encourage you to surrender today and every day. To show God our love, we must do his will even in the least things. 

Working the Happening weekends was a blast! The people were excited about Jesus. Every meeting was joy filled. The weekends were filled with prayer and fun. Steve, who was the program director,  would spend the weekend telling elephant jokes. We always had name tags and would switch around names tags just to confuse people. My mother in law's name is Jean, but most people called her mom. So, her name tag would read "Mom /Jean". One weekend, we put "Slash" on her tag. The priest at Mass said "Body of Christ, Slash". We laughed about that story for a long time. We set up one room in the building as a chapel with pictures of Jesus, flowers, candles, and carpet squares. There was someone in the chapel praying at all hours of the night and day. Every weekend was covered in prayer, and we saw many lives changed. The turning point on the weekend for many of the young people was the Agape dinner on Saturday night. It was a candlelight dinner with Jesus and the whole team. There was a sharing of bread and a sign of peace which usually consisted of a hug. For many young people who struggled with being loved and accepted, it was their "God moment". 

I decided that I needed to discern what God wanted me to do for my next job. I was sent to a bank  branch that was pretty slow except on payday. So, I decided to spend one week fasting on bread and water while waiting on God to direct my path. On Wednesday, out of the blue, my brother called me and told me that a friend's company was looking for a salesman. I had a list in my head about sales jobs and this job checked them all. I had an interview with the owner of the company and got the job.
I worked on this job for three and a half years. I covered parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. In retrospect, I learned many skills that I would use later in youth ministry. I had to strike up conversation with people that I had never met. I had get up in front of people and sell them on a product while over coming their objections. I had to work at building trust, and show commitment. I had to tell the truth even if it meant losing the sale. The product line was pretty technical so I had to educate myself before each sales call. It was the technical aspects of the product line that ultimately led me to  change industries. I got a job selling audio visual equipment which was more in line with my Radio Shack days. I worked for a small company out of Elk Grove Village. I sold to schools and companies in the western suburbs.

 In April of 1987, Jan and I were married. We made St Thomas Parish in Naperville are home. We pulled back from working the Happening, and became involved in youth and adult ministry at St Thomas. We led a small group of teens for three years. We helped with youth and adult retreats. We helped lead an adult Bible study, and was involved in a marriage prep program. In May of 1988, Bethany was born. By the end of 1989, we thought it would be a good idea to give Bethany a sibling, and Jan was pregnant. I had a friend, Bob, who was a civil engineer. He quit his job and took a position as a Director of Evangelization at St John parish. Bob was influential in my conversion. He was the director of the Happening weekend in Kankakee where I gave the Holy Spirit talk that changed the direction of my life. Since that day, our friendship has been more of a "soul" friendship. There is a spiritual bond that runs deeper than a normal friendship. I can talk to him about anything and he will always give me a very thoughtful answer. I could go a whole year without seeing him, and our relationship doesn't miss a beat. I started to discern if God was leading me to leave the business world and work for the church. Don't forget we had a bun in the oven not exactly the best time to change jobs. 

I read a book by a Protestant pastor who had visions of angels. In fact, at one point he wrote that he was taken on a tour of heaven. He saw a room in heaven that the Catholics call purgatory. I suddenly had a fascination about angels. I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking there were angels in my room. This went on for several months. In April of 1990, Bob calls me and tells me that there is a parish in Aurora looking for a youth minister. You will never guess the name of the parish.

I wanted to serve God and his church. I saw too many young people who were considered "leaders" of their youth groups and they didn't know if God existed. Whole families minimally practicing the faith. I see it still today. Most young people are not growing up in Catholic homes. What do I mean? Homes are supposed to be domestic churches. Which means that they should experience prayer and grow up learning about God through song, story, videos, movies, and activities. The house should be holy. Thus, they should be protected from unholy things and activities. The goal of the family is to get each member to heaven. I see few families with that as their goal. How can I tell?  By the way people talk, spend money, and spend time. Young people don't know Moses, Noah, Adam and Eve. I had no idea what I was getting myself into by working for the church, but I knew God equips those that He calls. I would rely on God's help continually over the years ahead.