God is Crazy



I tried to live my life for God. I, of course, struggle every day in trying to live it out. Yet, I tried to give God every thing. I gave up drinking alcohol, not that drinking alcohol is bad, but for me, I had to make a clean break from it. I needed to change my language by eliminating swearing. I gave up my music by throwing out my record collection. I gave God the direction of my life which led eventually to becoming a youth minister. I tried to focus on others and helping them get closer to Christ. I started tithing to God. I still struggled with selfishness and the seven deadly sins, but my heart was for God. I would not have been able to date and eventually marry Jan unless I was attempting to be a man of God. She would not have considered it. God is crazy in love with each person that he willed into existence. If we let him, in our weakness, he will show his strength. I have seen more than a life time of crazy miracles.

In 1990, I took a DRE and youth ministry position with Holy Angels Parish in Aurora. We were living a block away from the church in the front half of an old run down house. The landlord promised to fix it up but never attempted to do it. There was no air conditioning except one window unit in the living room. The windows didn't have screens nor could we open some of them. We had squirrels living between the walls of the girls bedroom. We had to find a new place to live. I was only making in the mid twenties and we are expecting our third child. We could not afford much, but God is good. What to do? Pray. We had a hard time finding suitable housing that we could afford. We found a small cottage style house that was so small you could plug in the vacuum cleaner in the dining room and vacuum the whole house. But, it had three small bedrooms and air conditioning! There was a problem. It cost too much! We were desperate. We had to move out of the old house because it was the end of the month. We moved our belongings to the rectory garage and moved into my in-laws basement. A couple days later, the landlord of the cottage house called. His wife told him to lower the rent and rent it to us. God is Crazy!

We lived in the little cottage house for a little less than a year. I had been talking to God for several months about our budget. It just wasn't working out. Raising three children on a small youth minister salary was not a good long term plan! He has to do something if He wants me to stay in youth ministry. Well, Jan and I went to the Good Friday evening service. Afterwards, our pastor came up to us. He said there was a house for sale next to the school and there was a family who wanted to buy it. Get this! They wanted to know if we wanted to live there for one hundred dollars a month in rent!!! It was a pristine three bedroom ranch house that was sent from God! Our answer was instantly "YES!" Praise God! We lived in that house for ten years. We will be forever grateful to that family. I ask God to bless them often. They eventually made the house four bedrooms after we added two more children. I thank God often for that blessing because I would not have been in youth ministry for so many years without that miracle. God is crazy!

Matthew 6

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Every year , I would spend some time in prayer asking God where He wanted us to serve. For Eleven years , I felt called to stay at Holy Angels Parish. In middle of the twelfth year, I sensed God leading me to apply for an opening with the Diocese of Rockford as Director of youth and young adult ministry. I was offered the position. I took it with much trepidation. It meant moving our family of five children. We didn't have the money to buy a house and we again could not find suitable housing that we could afford. We had a week to move out of our miracle house. On the same day two different people called me and in the midst of the conversation told me about a house that the Diocese owns that was empty.  It was located in DeKalb which was the general area that we were looking. It was a house with a catch. It was a house with eight rooms in the back for students to live. The Diocese originally bought it to make it a house of discernment for men attending NIU. They changed their plans. So, the main house was empty and they were attempting to rent out the rooms to students. The Diocese property manager rented out the house to us at a reduced rent if we helped him manage the property. Because the rent was lower, it helped us get through some personal financial problems. God is crazy! 

The "Charlie Brown" house was really too small for our family but it fit our needs until we could figure out our next step. After about a little less than a year we decided it would be better for our family, if we moved. We wanted to move back closer to our families and to Bethany's school which was in Aurora. As well as, move closer to Holy Cross where Bethany was already attending Pat Haviland's great high school youth ministry program. Of course, we would be leaving Christ the Teacher parish which we loved including Msgr. Knox and staff including the future wife of Pat's Jen Haviland. Trying to find suitable housing for a large family that we could afford was proving to be difficult. We literally had a week to find a new place to live. Jan is crying in the bathroom. I pick up the Sunday newspaper. There is a description of a townhouse that is perfect. It is God's perfect answer to our prayer. The townhome is in great condition. It is it a half block down from one of Bethany's best friends. It will end up being a great location for my ministry jobs going forward. I could list a half dozen more reasons. Our friend is asking for the intercession of  St. Therese  of Lisieux and there is a huge rose bush growing on the side of this house. We are talking from ground to the gutters. We end up living there 14 Years. Do you know that I could never get that bush to bloom again! For those of you who don't know, St Therese was wishing to shower the world with roses when she went to heaven. Numerous people that I know have had this experience.A guy that I knew had a blood clot is the lower part of his leg. His sister started a novena to St Therese. On the day before the doctors were going to have to take part of the leg off, the blood clot dissolves! That same day, the sister inexplicably received a dozen roses. Our family loves books and in the lower level family room are wall to ceiling bookshelves. This simple town house served our family well. Many birthdays, graduations, etc. God provided another blessing in that in fourteen years the rent was never raised!! God is Crazy !! 

A middle-aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience. Seeing God she asked, "Is my time up?" God said, "No you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live." Upon hearing this, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. She even had someone change her hair color. Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it. She was released from the hospital but while crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by a car. Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 43 years?! Why didn't you pull me out of the path of that car?" God replied, "I didn't recognize you."


  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Faith and Family

Image
Growing up in a Catholic family in the 1960's &1970's was a tumultuous time. Growing up in my family was even more so. By the time the 1970's were over, both my parents had died and my life was turned upside-down. Yet, in a relatively short amount of time my parents instilled in me the foundation of faith that would be the spring board into a much deeper faith later in my life. Their devotion to God and to the church, and their moral character have been key examples to me. Their strong devotion to family was an important part of my childhood, and impacted my own devotion to my wife and children.  My parents were pillars in our faith community. They were active members of St. Petronille Church.  My mother was in the CCW and my father worked his way up to a regional post in the Knights of Columbus. They sponsored three parish bowling teams. My mother bowled in a women's league on Tuesdays and my father bowled in a men's league on Friday night. They bowled in
Read more

And to Think that I saw it on Glendale Avenue

Image
Glendale Avenue is a quiet almost dead end type of street. You really would have to have a reason to be driving on it. It was kind of a strange area of Wheaton. The neighborhood had no direct connection to the rest of the city. The kids attended Glen Ellyn schools. We participated in the Glen Ellyn park district activities. Our address was even Glen Ellyn. Yet, we were in the city limits of Wheaton. Glendale was a tree lined street that had hills on both ends and was only a block long. So, I really did walk to school uphill both ways!  Our simple ranch house was in the middle of the block in the valley of both hills. Thus, when it rained, we got water coming from both sides. Consequently, our yard flooded several times every summer, so did our basement. The neighborhood streets were resurfaced in an unique way. They would spray the streets with a thick layer of tar, and then a truck, loaded with very small white stones, would spread the stones as it slowly went down the street.
Read more

Why Me?

Image
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  (Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34) I invited God into my life after college. In reality, God has always been part of my life. I grew up in a great Catholic family. My parents were awesome faithful people. They were great examples to me of people who prayed and worked. They loved God and lived it. They owned their own small business and ran it as a Catholic. They were closed on Sundays. They closed their store from noon to three on Good Friday. They served their customers and raised seven children from the proceeds. They sent all seven to twelve years of Catholic school. They were involved in the faith and civic community. I witnessed them treat everyone with respect. They were great people and highly respected in the community. You would think that they would be spared suffering. Yet, my mother suffered with brain cancer for two years before she died. My father had to experience his bride be diagnose
Read more