Category: Weekly Blog

Categories
Weekly Blog

What Is Your Super Bowl?

Super Bowl LV was just played this past Sunday. Although slightly different given our year of COVID, it was still the event of the year. There’s no single thing in the U.S. with more buildup, expectation, or pageantry. The commercials, half-time show, features of the host city, star power, big money…these things are only outdone by the players on the teams and what they do on the field.

Both coaches have interesting stories. Andy Reid was the long-time head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, who led them in nine playoff runs, six division titles, five NFC Championship Games (including four consecutive appearances from 2001 to 2004), and one Super Bowl appearance. Ultimately released from Phili, he won his first Super Bowl last year with the Kansas City Chiefs. I’m a big Andy Reid fan.

Bruce Arians and his family have moved all over the country, with him coaching with many teams at both the college and professional levels prior to finally becoming a Head Coach. He was the Steelers Offensive Coordinator, when they beat his eventual team, the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. Having retired from Arizona as its Head Coach after 5 years in 2017, he signed a 4-year deal with Tampa Bay in 2019. Bruce has a big, bold personality and is known for the saying, “no risk it, no biscuit”. I love Bruce’s attitude.

Then come the quarterbacks. I’m not sure anything more can be made of their matchup or them individually…Brady, the 43-yearold who’s arguably the best of all time, now winning 7 Super Bowls and appearing in 10 (more than anyone in history on both counts) versus the young Mahomes who has the ability to make just about anything happen on the field, including the supernatural, winning his first Super Bowl last year.

Add to the above the Belichick/Brady debate…who needed who/who made who? Interesting that the Patriots had a less than impressive season without Brady while he just played in another Super Bowl with his new team.

In addition to the coaches and quarterbacks, both teams have tremendous talent and big personalities, too many to mention. Since 2009, there are at least 100mm people who watch the Super Bowl, with the peak at 115mm taking place in 2015. The Super Bowl is unquestionably a great event. It makes for a great evening, maybe even the entire day. While my wife and I watched alone at home, many have Super Bowl parties. A quick internet search indicates that roughly 28 million pounds of chips, 1.25 billion chicken wings, and 8 million pounds of guacamole were consumed this past Sunday. Wow!!!

Here’s my question for you…what’s your Super Bowl? The Super Bowl of your life. Although I’m a lifelong football fan, it’s my observation that so many of us pray to the god of football. We’ve become consumed by it. Pre-game. Post-game. During the game or at the water cooler the next day.

It might not be NFL football for you. It could be another sport. A hobby. It could be your obsession with what I refer as the 4Ps, possessions, pleasure, prominence, or people (using them, not authentic relationship).

What if as a nation, or as the world, we had as much enthusiasm for Jesus as we do the Super Bowl (or whatever your thing is). What if that were your reality? What would the impact be? Here’s what I know…the happiness that a Super Bowl win brings (even for the players, even for Tom Brady) is fleeting. So are the 4Ps.

I’m reminded of the line, “you can never have too much of what you really don’t need”. Think about that line. Here’s the reality…you’re never going to fill that God sized hole in the center of your chest with a Super Bowl win, a bonus at work, a nice car, or new house.

Jesus is the only thing (One) who can fill that hole.

Back in February, 2019, I posted a blog titled, “Tom Brady Isn’t Jesus Christ”. He wasn’t then and he’s not today, regardless of his 7 Super Bowl wins. There’s only one Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who gave His life for ours’.

God loves you more than you ever know, no matter what you’ve ever done. He proved that to us by sacrificing His only begotten Son. Jesus proved it on the Cross. They gave us the Holy Spirit to live within us, helping us to be all that God made us for…GREATNESS!!!

Super Bowls are fleeting. So are the 4Ps. There’s only one Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment, and it starts with embracing Jesus and living life in the Holy Spirit. The formula is this:

  • God loves you, knows what is best for, and wants to see you happy
  • God designed you a very specific way, with unique talents, for a specific purpose
  • Jesus called on us to love God, love others, and share our faith (Great Commandments and Great Commission)

Embrace the above, do what Jesus says, live God’s will…knowing that He knows what will make you happy and wants you to be so, you’ll be living the Super Bowl of your life on a consistent basis. Not that problems will never arise, but only in knowing the love of Christ, independent of substance or circumstance, will you experience JOY…to me, that’s the Super Bowl.

As always, feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistires.com with comments, questions, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

What “Assume” Really Means

You’ve probably heard before that “assume” means “making an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’”. Well, this past week, I was the “ass”. I made an assumption about someone and something that caused me to respond in a way I now regret.

In the circumstance I’m referring to, the details to which aren’t important here, the person I offended thought he was responding to an invitation by me. Here’s the thing…he was correct. I asked for his opinion and then I got upset when he gave it to me.

What gives? What’s wrong with me? First, I’m human and I’m a sinner, far from being a perfect individual. That said, what just happened has caused me to reflect.

Some observations.

To start, a brief comment about the phrase. When referring to “u” and “me”, the real “ass” is me, the person making the assumption. Although a poor assumption can make a mess out of things for both individuals, it’s the person making the assumption who has egg on his or her face, who’s responsible for the problems caused.

With a simple internet search, I found several articles, one of which by Dr. Marcia Sirota (marciasirotamd.com), who makes the point that “instead of basing our understanding of people and events on what we observe and what we know for a fact, we often prefer to make judgments based on our emotions, beliefs, expectations and wishes”.

She suggests always asking ourselves, “how do I know this?” If the answer to that question is anything other than “I learned it through observing the evidence or through obtaining factual information,” then we’re at risk of making an incorrect assumption.

Why Do We Make Assumptions?

The answer again is…we’re human.

We often jump to conclusions or make an assumption based on our past experiences or perceptions. Although we all do it, I’d like to be doing less of it. I think one thing I can do is ask the question proposed above by Dr. Sirota…”how do I know this?”

To do the above, I need to slow down…and not just “jump”, but ponder and reflect. I can’t be so quick to react, but thoughtfully respond. That said, I think there are two things that cause us to “assume” or jump to conclusions:

  • Pride – defined as a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. Pride expresses itself in “ego”, which is an acronym for “edge God out”.
  • Lack of self-love is related to pride and ego, among other things. Counter intuitive, the less we love or like ourselves, the more important it is for us to be right, to be on top, which expresses itself through pride and ego….in making assumptions or jumping to conclusions.

We are all beloved children of God, loved beyond imagine and made for greatness. Central to our calling is to love one another…through patience and kindness. Please join me in trying to no longer be the “ass”, instead of assuming…verifying and instead of reacting…responding.

As always, please feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistires.com with comments, questions, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

May God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!
Remember…You were Made for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

What We Can’t See

This April 25th, the Feast Day of St. Mark, it will be three years since I began doing this weekly blog. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve missed a week. Prior to launch, I did something like 20 blogs and had them in the “can” (my wife loves kidding me when I use that term). For the longest time now, I’ve been writing weekly. Each blog takes me 1-2 hours, followed by Mary Kate, my editor and designer, doing her thing prior to posting.

As you know, I often base the content on current events, then tying it back to our faith. Or I might write on a topic specific to my book or something on my heart based on what’s going on in my life.

Well, I started thinking about a topic for this blog mid-week, wrestled with some ideas this past Saturday, then spent 4 hours on Sunday…before scrapping what I had done.

I felt called to write about the Trump rally and events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. I included commentary on CNN trying to get FOX News thrown off the air and Apple, Amazon, and Google shutting down Parler, one of the very few politically agnostic social media platforms, where they allow for free expression, without risk of being “deplatformed” or censored.

Lastly, I wrote a piece on an excellent book I just read, where Dr. Ralph Martin did an incredible job of laying out many challenges of our modern-day Church in, “A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward”. I highly recommend it…you can get it at  https://stpaulcenter.com/product/a-church-in-crisis-pathways-forward/. My plan was to tie all of the above to the concept of “truth”, in the secular world, then noting the required albeit not always achieved, leadership role of the Church.

 

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

Then it blew up on me. Sickened by the vitriol that exists on social media (I shut it down several weeks ago), from our politicians, and on the news (I watch much less than I used to), I couldn’t figure out how to address the real issues without offending some. And I guess that’s the point of this blog. We used to live in a country where there was a free exchange of ideas, where we debated the issues as opposed to attacking one another’s character. You may have heard, “hate the sin, not the sinner”.

The above doesn’t exist today. Instead, we have “cancel culture” and censorship. To be honest, I’m mad and I’m sad. I can’t believe we are the country we have become. Why are we so divided? I’ve been paying close attention to Presidential politics since Ronald Reagan and we’ve never seen anything like this. It all seems to center around Donald Trump.

I know why our political elite hate Donald Trump. He’s gotten in the way of their power and greed. He was disrupting the welfare (Democrat) and warfare (Republican) states. I just don’t understand why the hate by so many others. Even if you strongly disagree with all his policies, why all the tremendous hate? The absolute disgust…that has resulted in the most toxic of environments? I had a lot of hate in me at one time in my life. It’s not a healthy place to be.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

It’s been amazing and sad to watch. I don’t know how we’re going to recover. I do know this. My faith has never been more important to me. I’m committed to clinging to the Cross, the teachings of the Church and that in Holy Scripture. I’m going to double down on my prayer life, continuing to include those who disagree with me. I’m going to concentrate on living my faith the best I can, which means loving my wife and kids and all those who Jesus puts in my path.

I hope you’ll do what I just described above. Let’s all pray for our country and its leaders. They certainly need it.

As always, please feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with comments, questions, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!!
Always remember…you were made for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

 

Categories
Weekly Blog

Two Do’s and Don’ts for Everyday

Happy New Year!!! On behalf of Mark Joseph Ministries, I wish you and your family the very best for 2021. In fact, we’d like to help you make it the best year of your life. It’s our prayer that we can do so.

To kick-off the year, I thought that we’d start with some simple things, that can make life better…make us better at life. Here we go.


Photo by Vie Studio from Pexels

Have you ever felt that you’re fairly good at a task, but see something come along that you think can help you improve? That just happened to me. Over a long period of time, I’ve been a good planner, both short and long-term. Having seen an online course put on by someone whose work I really respect, Donald Miller, I decided to take it.

One of many things Donald covered in the course was the notion that we ought to identify and track the 2 things that every day, we want to do and the 2 things that we want to make sure we don’t do. He suggests writing them down and reviewing them (as part of a much broader process) every morning, then checking them off as being completed when done. Donald indicates that his process serves as a reminder as well as sources of affirmation and inspiration.

My suggestion would be to take it to prayer, then writing the things on a small piece of paper, i.e. Post-it note. That way you can look at it while brushing your teeth in the morning and then again before bed.


Photo by Polina Kovaleva from Pexels

My list is below…5 in the affirmative (not meaning to be over-achiever here…they’re the things the Lord put on my heart) and 2 in the negative, although one could be flipped. It includes:

  • Things I do…every day
    • Prayer
    • Go to Mass
    • Serve others
    • Exercise
    • Read
  • Things I don’t do…everyday
    • No negativity towards self or others
    • Don’t miss opportunity to tell/show Cyndi my love

It is said that for a behavior to take hold, you need to do it for 30 days. Are there some new behaviors you’d like to master? Or maybe your list includes things that you do already, but want to now stretch yourself with, or be more consistent. What are your 2-5?

Hope the above is of some help. As always, feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com, with comments, questions, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!
Remember always…GOD made YOU for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph