Casey Stage

The theater department put on the musical Pippin this past weekend.  It was a fun and light-hearted show with a big message.  It is a story about Prince Pippin who tries to discover his purpose or calling in life.  He decides to follow after his father, King Charlemagne, and goes into war.  He discoveries the treacheries of war and decides that his father is not doing his job properly.  He goes into politics and takes over for his father.  After realizing that his father's job is much harder than it looks, Pippin is again concerned that he does not know his purpose.  He ends up with the peasants and becomes acquainted with Catherine.  He falls in love be decides that the simple, settled down life of a family is not enough for him and that he has more of a purpose than that.  He becomes so distressed and confused.  The narrator and the accompanying chorus keep pulling at Pippin to do this and do that.  In the midst of the chaos, he discovers that love is all he needs and life with Catherine and her son is his ultimate calling.

This musical was a more humorous and artistic way of portraying what has been discussed in Honors class all semester.  It presents the question that the class has been trying to answer.  Pippin gives the audience a real-life feel to this issue which helps the audience relate to him.  Everyone goes through times where they do not feel like they are living a worthwhile life.  They feel that there is more they could be doing.  Sometimes people find that they overlook the most meaningful parts of their lives because they are searching for something more.  Pippin let those around him influence his decisions and make him believe that there was a different purpose for his life.  It was when he got away from that that he met Catherine and became drawn to that life.  His mindset was still following what he was being told and he became scared that he was only settling.  This is the same as society's influence in people's lives today.  The media surrounds the human culture and tells people how to live.  Society give people the notion that they have to keep striving for something more.  Society has taken the idea of contentment right out of the picture.  Contentment does not mean settling; it means not overlooking where one is called to be.

The play was very funny and I am in love with musicals.  It was such an interesting thing of how well the play matched up with this semester's discussion in class about callings.  Everyone goes through a time where they are searching for just that right calling.  It is scary because there is the thought that if we fall to far the wrong direction, there is never a chance to get back on track.  Right now, as college students, we are all experiencing this stress.  We mull over our schedules and our major to make it fit just right.  Pippin showed that it was the times that strayed and went various different directions that helped him see his perfect calling the best.  We also have to trust that we are not alone in this adventure.  God is right beside us guiding us if we let Him.

Presenting the Poehler Lecture Series: Faith and Learning, Head to Head, Heart to Heart.  Tuesday night was a night of great intellect and faith.  Brothers, Dr. Dale and Dr. Thomas Trapp, began their presentation with some insight as to what it was like growing up in the Trapp home.  They both described their first birth when they came into this world, their second birth as they were baptized and confirmed, and their final birth when they enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The theme of the night was "Faith and Learning; Head to Head, Heart to Heart."  Dr. Dale's role during the presentation was to describe the scholarly aspect of faith, learning and living.  He did so through his profession as a professor in the physical sciences.  Dr. Tom touched on the more spiritual side of faith, learning and living through his role as a Theology professor and as a minister.

Dr. Dale's discussion during the lecture was about the mysterious versus the miraculous.  He compared many of today's findings in science to the many miracles in the Bible.  There is a lot found in scientific research that seems to defy natural laws.  Dr. Dale used Lenz' Law as an example.  By Lenz' Law, a magnet that is dropped down a metal tube will take longer to fall.  This is because the energy induced by the falling magnet causes a current opposite of the magnetic flux.  This current pulls the magnet in the opposite direction making it fall much slower than normal.  He also showed a diagram that went through the sizes of known objects in the world from incredibly microscopic to an amazing vastness in size.  He said these very things are unfathomable and yet they are accepted.  When compared to miracles in the Bible, the mysteries seem just as unimaginable as the miracles, but the miracles are seen with skepticism by many.  Both of these are outside common experience but they were already there before they were discovered.  They are both so majestic that they cannot be fully understood.  He refers to Psalm 8 when saying that God does not want us to limit our studies to certain topics.  God has created this world for us to discover and learn and through our faith we can understand the wonderment of this world.

Dr. Tom Trapp refers to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, "For we live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it (v. 7-9)...For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (v. 14-15)."  He described faith as being a way of necessitating Christ.  God was in the beginning, He is now, and He is the future.  Dr. Tom used a triangle diagram to represent God.  Creation took a fall from God, but even so, God went looking for the lost.  God continued to have grace for the lost creation and then sent His son to be the savior of the world.  Through Christ, creation has as brand new relationship with God.  A relationship with God is not that of reward and punishment; rather, it is one where God has it all taken care of and is taking care of His creation.  It is not what His creation can do to receive a reward.

What is important is what motivates creation and what is inside of creation, that being the Holy Spirit.  Creation is to ask for help in using what it already has to glorify God.  God is the active one.  It is not about what creation does, but it is about what God does and has already done through salvation.  Sanctification comes through the Holy Spirit working in creation.  Creation is active in Christ.  God helps creation look for ways in which it is to respond and He gives the answers and guidance.  Creation acts it all out.  It is difficult to fully understand what God has planned, but creation must trust that He is the One working everything out and will give His creation the answers needed to fulfill His plan.  It is not what creation does, but what He does through His creation.  Creation is to listen to the world to know how to understand what God tells it through nature.  Some situations can never be fully understood.  Some of the answers will never be told.  God works for the good of every situation (Romans 8:28), and not all things that happen can be rationalized, but all of Creation can believe that God uses everything for His intended purpose.

Dr. Tom Trapp gave the audience some analogies for how to carry out the faith and trust in God's plan.  A rowboat is rowed while facing backwards.  The rower is always looking behind to where he has been rather than to where he is going.  A rowboat is like the Hebrew concept of time.  What is known from the past can give guidance for the future.  An airplane falls when there is no one operating it or when one jumps out of it without a parachute.  Dr. Tom explained that humans are born with a falling condition.  God says that He will not stand for that and humans are not to bring others down.  God says not to use His name for evil.  A vacuum cleaner either works or it does not depending on if it is plugged in or not.  Humans in faith must try not to be wishy-washy.  It is normal that events in life cause the faith to wane, but it is one's duty to want the Holy Spirit to strengthen their faith once more.  One is to not decide that faith is only important sometimes without caring much if that faith has waned.  This leads into the idea of "inside versus outside."  One must have a yearning to strengthen his faith, but one must realize that God already has him.  He is already in and it is not him who allows himself to have faith; it is by the work of the Holy Spirit that one is to have faith.  The last of the analogies was the idea of married versus dating.  As mentioned earlier, God has a relationship with creation.  This relationship is not something that creation has to win because God is always there and creation always has that relationship.

Dr. Dale and Dr. Tom left the audience with some thinking points.  Humans are to have "cross" eyes; that is to look at the world through faith.  They are to have "tomb" vision by living in the world knowing that they already have that relationship with God.  They are in the tomb with Him.  God has given humans talents that He intended to be used for His glory.  Dr. Dale and Dr. Tom showed that both faith and learning coexist.  Through the comparison of mysteries and miracles, it seems that it is hard to have one without the other.  Humans are to expand their minds and their hearts in order to grow and learn through and with God.  Humans' task is to not just train for life here on earth.  The question humans must ask themselves is who calls the shots?  Ultimately, it should be God leading every person's life, and if one finds that God is not at the head of the line, things need to change.  Humans are to look at life within the framework of what God has done and humans are not in charge of other's hearts, only their own.  If one's life is set in God and something light in one's heart in which one is moved by it, then one should go for those things.  God will continuously guide.  

It is difficult when seeing the bad things in the world to trust that God is guiding.  How much greater is it to trust in God amidst all of the awful; instead of losing faith in Him, why not lose faith in man?  The human reason for becoming skeptical in the miracles of God is because they want an ultimate reason and rational explanation.  They use knowledge to try and figure out something that can never be proved with worldly minds.  This knowledge becomes god to them and the place limits on the unlimited.  One will never be able to understand that which one does not know; just because it cannot be rationalized does not mean that it does not exist.  

The Poehler Lecture, presented by Dr. Dale and Dr. Tom Trapp, was absolutely wonderful.  They presented insights to various aspects of faith and learning that helped give a better understanding of how they can coexist.  It provides much confidence and encouragement to know that no matter what we do in life, God is there to guide.  It only depends on if we let Him guide.  God is that parent that says He will support me in whatever career/life path I choose.  He is continuously walking alongside me.  I will make mistakes and stray from His approval, but He is still there and will always be there to help.

To God be the glory!  Amen.

There was much talk on the idea of one's calling Monday night.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer described his idea of the connection between obedience and faith.  The connection happens when one does not insist on living his or her life based on his or her own terms, which places a barrier between God and man.  Bonhoeffer mentions that being connected in Christ is not an offer that one makes to God.  God places that person in a situation where faith is possible.  He gives a person insight into His plan for a person and through faith, that person has the ability to act.  This action is the form of obedience.  Faith and obedience go hand in hand.  "One must believe to obey and obey to believe."  Bonhoeffer's point is that in order to do as God intends, one must have faith that He is the One who does the calling.  In order to believe that God is the caller, one must obey God's call to follow him.  

It is hard to rationalize how one is to know if God is speaking and directing, and it is hard to know exactly what one's calling is.  God's main calling for us is to be content in our situation in life because He is always there to guide.  One's main duty is to submit to God's will continuously, asking for guidance in prayer and being willing and open to any way in which one feels driven.  Even if one strays from God's plan, God will always work for the good of any situation.  He has a purpose in any situation.  Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."  Contentment is mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:6, "But godliness with contentment is great gain," and again in Hebrews 13:5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"

The idea of having a calling from God is a scary thought in a way because there is so much that could happen.  How are we to know if that is exactly what is supposed to happen? I think that is part of God's calling; He gives us free will to decide if we want to obey and have faith in Him.  He is in charge of the Holy Spirit which enters our heart and mind and gives us the ability to have faith in Him.  With the Holy Spirit leading our life, there is no way that what we do can stray from God's calling for us.  Sure, we may stray from living a godly life, but God works for the good of every situation.  If we have faith in that and if we are willing to carry out God's plan for our lives, that's all God needs to take the reins over our life.  That is what we have to do is give Him complete control.  The other part of knowing that we are carrying out God's calling is to be content with where we are in life.  That does not mean to just sit back and do nothing.  God does intend to give us guidance and then expect us to act upon it.  He gives us the situation with which we can act.  Our contentment lies in trusting that He is guiding and that a situation may not be the best now, but God is working for the good of that situation.

The Callings readings for Monday night presented an array of writers who shared different outlooks on faith and what it means to act out that faith.  Horace Bushnell was a pastor in Connecticut in the early nineteenth century.  His writing explains his views on a calling from God and his belief that God works in every aspect of life and has a particular purpose for every person.  His thesis states "That God has a definite life-plan for every human person, girding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished" (p. 354).  He goes on to further explain his thesis by referring to what God says about His plan in the Bible.  God has a personal connection with every person and provides every person with special talents they need to carry out God's plan for them.  Bushnell says that this guidance by God has no purpose unless there is a specific life-course formed for each one.  He goes on to say that all of the wonders of the world are not in existence by mere chance.  God guides and constructs those happenings so that they would fit perfectly into place.  Bushnell mentions that everything is to serve its intended purpose and not stray from that.  Through free will, everyone is able to stray from the path that God has provided, but in doing so, it is a way of denying God and believing that a plan of the world is greater than a plan of God.  In every aspect of life, God's creation is to refer to Him as their guide and director in life.  

The passage in Callings ends with Horace Bushnell's list of things to consider when trying to discover the course God has laid out.  God made His creation to be excellent and worthy in relation to His own character.  Therefore, only creation can make it bad, but He, Himself, did not make it bad and what God plans for His people is to be in harmony with His good character.  Several things that people can use to interpret and understand God's plan is their conscience, God's law and Word, and the observation of Providence, or messages from God in life situations.  One must go to his or her friends and to God as well, seeking guidance and answers from God.  This compilation of reminders about the life God has intended for His people is a how-to list of sorts that can open a person to seek out an understanding for God's plan and direction.

The most controversial part of this reading, as was discovered in the Honors class, is how does one know if God has a plan for His people.  Then there is the question of free will and where does that come into play.  The reading described free will as being the ability to choose whether or not one wants to follow and carry out God's plan.  The act of denying His plan is the other choice.  God has created His people each with his own special talents and gifts.  Bushnell said that God has an intended purpose for these gifts and He is directing His people if they are willing.  Some students in the Honors class mentioned that maybe God does not necessarily have a specific plan completely laid out for every person, but maybe it is those talents and gifts that God planned, and He give His people the freedom to do with them as they wish.  Other students, though not in full disagreement, wondered why there could not be an intended purpose for those talents.  Surely, God must have a place and reason behind those talents; otherwise He would not have created them.

This reading was one in the class that was not all that popular.  I, however, actually related to it quite well and did enjoy it.  God would not have put us on this Earth if He did not have a plan for us.  The Bible describes in many different passages that we are to follow the instructions that God has laid out for us.  Even the Lord's Prayer mentions "God's will be done."  Therefore, it is not our worldly plans for our lives that should be focused on.  Instead, we should work to carry out God's plan.  I think the reason that people become skeptical about the idea of God's plan is because it is not a concrete plan that is obvious to us.  It creates fear and doubt in us that we are not following God's plan.  This is why I really liked how Bushnell created a list of guidelines to remember.  I really liked how he emphasized that since we are God's creation and evil is not in God's nature, our selves are harmonized with God.  To be willing and in want of carrying out God's plan is to let go of control and give it all to God.  We should not be worried, because when we give control to God, He will do the work to keep us on His path.  I also liked how Bushnell gave a reminder to be observant of the situations in life.  This is because God is walking alongside of us and is speaking to us whenever we are in need of guidance.  Some people are uneasy to think that God speaks to us in all sorts of situations, but I believe that to not believe that this is possible is to limit the power of God.  God's power, though, is limitless and infinite.  Thus, by having faith in God's power, we are also able to apply God's great power to our own lives and carry out the plans He has constructed for us.

Though this quote did not come from Bushnell's writings, it really stood out to me.  To end, in his description of faith, Soren Kierkegaard says that "after having made the movements of infinity, it makes the movements of finitude."  This gives us hope that through having faith, we can go about our lives applying that faith to the world around us and trust that God is guiding us every step of the way.

Saturday was a cold day for Concordia athletics and those enduring the cold tried their best to be sympathetic of the players who had to perform at their best despite the weather.  The Concordia softball team hosted Northern State in a pair of double header games.  The noon game was an evenly matched game.  The Wolves (Northern State) gained the lead in the first inning, but that did not slow down the Golden Bears.  The Golden Bears answered the Wolves with three runs to take ownership of the field.  The fourth inning was fairly uneventful with the Wolves getting one run to make the score three to two.  The game went to seven innings with the final score at three to two.

The dedication of the softball players to the game is what God looks for from His people.  He says to trust Him and put all focus and effort into following Him and living life for Him.  Just as the athletes are determined to do their best at their sport, so are God's people called to do their best putting their trust in Him and focusing their lives on Him.  1 Corinthians 9:25 says, "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wealth, but we, an imperishable."  The attributes of an athlete, self-control, motivation, passion, and dedication should also be applied to growing in faith.  Athletes also have guidelines to follow in the game that they play in order to be successful.  They also have rules to follow as to their technique and other aspects that allow them to be better players of that game.  This, too, is something that God's people are called to do.  Though Christians are no longer under the law through Christ's salvation, Christians are still called to follow the law.  Salvation without the law would be cheap grace.  2 Timothy 2:5 says, "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules."  Christians are God's athletes working toward the prize of salvation and a place in heaven.

I sympathized with the softball players and the cold conditions.  As an athlete, it is not as fun having to breathe in the cold air and work past stiffer joints and muscles.  At any rate, the softball team did a good job at claiming their territory at Carlander Field against Northern State.  It is interesting thinking about the amount of time, effort, and passion athletes need in order to be successful and then comparing it to our calling to follow Christ.  I have to remind myself at times during the week to slow down and put as much effort into focusing on God as I am on the various tasks throughout the week.  Sometimes I wonder why it can be so much easier to fall into completely forgetting about thanking God for all of His blessings than it is to forget about what needs to be done during the week.  If we were to put God in our agenda just as we do class schedules and homework, He would become a part of our lives rather than just something extra we do every day when we get the chance.

Last Wednesday, Sigma Pi had a seminar which involved students sharing their involvement with internships, jobs, and other experiences that pertained to their field of study.  They shared how much opportunity there is to get a taste of a field of study that does not involve sitting in a classroom.  The first student was Hassan Masroujeh who participated in an internship at the Mayo Clinic and participated in a research program called SPARE, or Smoking Prohibition and Reduction Evaluation.  He took part in researching the effectiveness of the smoking ban, especially around hospitals, and what should be done to improve its authority.  He said that having an internship provides experience through job shadowing, helps create networks with businesses and other people in that field, provides a personal connection between one's self and that career, and it gives an outlook on strategies for how to be successful in that career.  Hassan also mentioned that a lot of internships like his are at no cost and the company or organization will pay for most, if not all, expenses.  It just requires acceptance into the program, a high grade point average, and being on good terms with faculty at the college that the applicant is attending.

Hassan's internship directly related to helping people due to it being in the medical field and through research that worked to benefit the health of others.  It is that kind of work and the continuous efforts of many to improve the lives of the world that allow for the world to be healthier and safer.  It also helped him in his field of study by gaining better understanding of the field and what is expected.  Internships provide a student with a better comfort of not only knowing if that field of study is one that that student wants to study, but also more confidence with that field.  Hassan's internships seemed comparable to the structure of the Honors Program.  He talked of how they would spend all day working at various areas of the hospital. He said that it would get very tiring, but it was a lot of experience and learning every day.  The Honors Program incorporates a lot of different information and experience in one program and each week will cover various amounts of subjects.  At the end of the week, the class has been enlightened by many areas of study.  Hassan decided to use his talents in the medical field to help those around him, and in doing so, he has carried out service for others.

It was really inspiring listening to Hassan speak about his experience.  He made the idea of pursuing a future career a little less intimidating.  The future and how much that's supposed to happen in the next three years seem so unclear.  It makes me scared in a way to the point that I do not always like to think about it, so learning about others experiences helps me to feel that it is all possible.  In the first year of college, we are bombarded with information of how much experience we need to acquire for our careers and how much we need to have under our belt after we graduate in order to be successful in our career.  It is so overwhelming and it does not seem that 4 years is long enough to fit all of that in.  It was relieving to hear about Hassan's experience because he did not seem like he had done anything more than the rest of the students.  He just chose a field of study and found an internship to fit that field.  He made it seem doable and laid it out in a way that no longer seemed as impossible.

George Herbert was an Anglican priest who lived from 1593-1633.  In his writings he stressed that all people have a calling and that it is their duty to figure out what is that calling.  His work relayed that said by God to go and work for the good of one's neighbor and that all that is to be had in the world must be worked for.  God has a plan for each person and a particular task in which that person must carry out.  Those tasks may change every so often, but Herbert also mentions the importance of putting all of one's self into that task.  By putting all of one's self in the work, one will be able to provide as much energy and support as possible when carrying out the work in order to benefit one's neighbor.  George Herbert was a priest in a small church in the country, which he believed was his calling.  In his poem, The Collar, Herbert expresses what he missed because he chose to be a priest rather than something else.  He also explains the greater benefits of trusting in God's plan and knowing the greater rewards that come from following Him.

This is a big challenge that Christians face today and something that causes much controversy among Christians.  That is the idea of what the best way is and who decides.  Ultimately God decides, but what if someone interprets a situation differently?  This confusion brings itself into the lives of many people, whether it is finding a job, a career path, or even the school that fits right.  College students have this challenge for four years as they attempt to plan the rest of their lives in four years.  It all begins with the choice of the right school and then everything follows.  Nothing is permanent, though, and not every decision made will have to be the only way things will go.  Students still transfer to different schools to find greater satisfaction, and many adults enter various career paths until they find one that fits.

Reading this section reminded me of the first discussions that the class had when we tried to define what it means to have a calling.  Herbert would say that it is allowing God to guide and putting all of one's self into whatever position it is that he or she is in.  I would say that I agree to Herbert's views.  God does call us to have a specific place in the world and our ultimate goal is to serve and work for good of others.  I have discovered and learned that God does not always just spell everything out for us.  He also expects us to do some work or to at least do as much as reaching out to receive His blessings.  I believe that if we put all of our focus and trust in God, He is going to guide our lives and keep on His path that He has laid out for us.  This means that we should not be afraid to pursue something, especially if it is something that we want, because with our focus on God, He will direct us in that pursuit.  As long as we are continuously checking in with God and asking Him to lead us, He will, and so we must just be willing to do everything for the glory of God and to do everything with the focus on the One who guides.

Martin Luther was a strong advocate for creating equality of power within the church.  He had a strong view of two aspects of Christianity, what he called the spiritual estate and the temporal estate.  The spiritual estate, during his time, consisted of the Christian nobility (priests, monks, etc.).  The temporal estate was everyone else who did not have a religious profession.  Luther wrote and believed that the spiritual estate was "pure invention" and "man-made."  His views were based on 1 Corinthians 12:12 which states, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ."  Luther wrote that all Christians are of the spiritual estate and all Christians form one body, but each has its own work.  Therefore, it is not the profession that makes a person spiritual; it is the Holy Spirit that works through that person's faith.  1 Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen, people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."  All people are together in the work of glorifying Christ.  This also ties in with Luther's Gospel for the Early Christmas Service.  Luther described that a person's work is pleasing to God more so if it is done with a willing and loving heart and through faith rather than the external characteristics, such as choice of food, clothing, prayers, localities, and persons, of that work.  In Luther's Gospel, he points out Galatians 5:22 and the fruits of the spirit or works of faith which are love, joy, peace, kindness, being able to get along, patience, confidence, mercy and chastity.

Today's world seems a bit more complex than that of Martin Luther's time.  There are so many more professions, positions, and roles people play today which determine a person's status in society.  Luther's writings are still relevant, though, because they teach today's people that their profession or the amount of wealth they have is nothing if they place themselves in a higher position than the rest or they do not see that their faith in Christ places them equal with all believers.  This world is a very external world with more and more importance placed on appearances and status roles rather than disposition and the consideration of others.  The idea, though, that those of the "Christian nobility" have the ultimate connection with Christ and that they are higher than the rest in the Christian faith has somewhat waned.  There are still people who hold themselves with a higher regard because of their faith, but this is exactly the kind of thing that not only Martin Luther, but also Jesus Christ warned against.  It is difficult for Christians today in a world where religion, especially Christianity, is judged as being judgmental. It makes it difficult for Christians to carry out their faith, as many will see them as only being haughty.

Martin Luther's mention of the fruits of the spirit is a good reminder for my own behavior and attitude in life.  Sometimes I see my day to day tasks, even going to church, as burdens rather than the opportunity to live another day in which God has given me and to shine His glory.  It is also a good reminder to not just go through the motions of every day; rather, it pushes people to really put their heart and soul into what they are doing.  This is why religious rituals make me uneasy just because, although they have good intentions and are important, they can cause people to really lose sight of the main reason they are performing those rituals.  They forget that they are there to glorify God but it is not the rituals that bring salvation, it is Christ himself.  The equality of the spiritual and temporal estate stood out to me because as I am deciding what I want as a career someday, I get worried that if I do not go into a religious profession, I would not be doing my part to spread the light of Christ unto the world.  This reading made it even clearer that I can still spread that light while in any profession as long as I keep my focus on Him who directs my path.  In regard to my volunteer organization, going to the Boys & Girls Club has seemed like a burden some nights, especially when I have a lot of homework and deadlines to worry about.  What I have to focus on is the well-being of the children I interact with each time I visit.  God has a plan for me at the club and I should pursue it with enthusiasm and trust that He will help me with everything else.

One reading that stood out from Monday night's Callings readings was Bonaventure's biography of Francis of Assisi.  St. Francis lived around 1181 to about 1226, and though his father was an Italian merchant, he sought out a life of simplicity.  His way of life eventual formed the Franciscan order of which Bonaventure joined later after it was formed.  Francis was drawn to the Gospel and his eyes were opened when he became too focused on the work of business that he did not give to a poor man who had looked for help from Francis in the name of God.  From then on, Francis made it his duty to continuously give and to love God.  Still somewhat consumed in the business world, he did not completely know of God's plan for him, but God continued to speak to him.  Francis continued to give to the poor and listen to God.  At one point God asked him who can do more, a lord or a servant and a rich or a poor man.  When Francis replied saying that a lord and a rich man could do more, God asked him why he chooses a servant over the Lord and a poor man over the rich God.  As Francis lived out his life, he would take God's plans for him a little too literally but still focused on living simply in order to live a God-filled life.

The life of St. Francis is very contradictory to today's society because today's society is all about the next big thing.  Technology has made this advancement grow faster and faster which has instilled that mindset in society that there will be something that can make our lives even better.  St. Francis, however, could have had the luxuries of his time being involved with his father's business, but instead, his eyes were opened to how those luxuries can distract a person from focusing on God's grace.  He really takes a step backwards and opens the doors to being more content in life.  In this mindset, anyone could be more satisfied with their life as it is.  When a person is satisfied with their life, they are more willing to give satisfaction to others.  They know how to appreciate the good and the bad parts of their lives. St. Francis was also unaware of God's plan for him, but he continued to have faith and just put his effort into focusing on God because he knew that God would direct him.  This is relevant to people today, especially those in college who are trying to figure out exactly what they should study to prepare for a future career.  It is a scary and intimidating prospect, but learning from Francis, all that needs to be done is to have faith and God will do the rest.

This story of Francis really stood out to me mainly because of Francis' experience of not knowing God's plan for him.  Due to his struggle, we would sometimes get lost in his everyday life, which caused him to stray from focusing on God.  I can relate to Francis in that I see my life as a roller coaster in a way.  I have times where I am super focused on God and then there are times where my life gets busy and I stray from that focus.  I also am so afraid that I am doing something that is not according to God's plan for me.  I do not want to waste time doing something else when I could be doing what God wants me to.  I have learned throughout life experiences that those events that are not necessarily according to God's plan God is using to shine His love and glory and perform His wonder.  Romans 8:28 says, "And God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."  God uses those events to grow us up in our faith and our maturity and we can learn a lot.  I believe that if we are open with God and continuously willing to live according to His plan and if we are constantly checking in with Him, then that is all that God needs from us and He will do the rest.  It is not by our works that grace becomes abundant, and I believe that the Lord is a very understanding God.  Discussing monasticism in class presents some extreme ideals that do not seem very comprehensive.  One of the main questions is whether or not that is the only way a person can truly lead a God-filled life.  The monastic way of life was so that people would get rid of distractions that take them away from God.  These are not the only ways to focus on God.  It is not by our own works that we are saved.  Though the monastic way of life does not believe in marriage or families, it does not mean that those become a wrong way to live a life for God.  I believe that in anything a person does, as long as he or she is doing it in a way to focus on God, then it is the right way to live a life for Him.  Nothing is concrete and there is no right or wrong way to live a God-filled life.  We just need to let go of our own control and surrender and submit ourselves God.  He will direct our paths and guide us to live a life that pleases Him.