I was looking forward to last Thursday for weeks. I love any chance I get to spend time in praise and worship and Adoration, and love even more when I can do so in my own church. It’s such a great feeling to be there with my God and let all of my worries melt away and just spend the entire hour and a half praising Him.

Or, at least, that’s what was supposed to happen.

Once I got there, however, I couldn’t focus at all. My mind was all over the place, thinking about my girlfriend, then work, then Life Teen, then my plans for the weekend, then the package that I was tracking, then the temperature in the building, then what time The Office was supposed to be on and if it was new that night, then that I needed to trim my fingernails, then how hungry I was, and then all of that stuff in reverse. I just could not, for the life of me, concentrate and put my all into the experience.

All that I was able to bring that night was my presence. Not much more. Legend has it that Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of life is just showing up.” It is in moments like last Thursday, that I really hope that to be true. I really hope, and I really believe, that my presence alone is occasionally enough to satisfy God. It wasn’t the best effort I’ve ever given, and certainly not my best result, but I was trying.

I think it’s important to remember that quote when we’re our best laid plans don’t go as well as we’d hoped. Sometimes, in many situations, just being there is good enough.

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This past weekend, I brought my cousin, Megan, to Mass with me. Megan is making her Confirmation this year, and as part of the preparation, she and her sponsor were to attend Mass together at least once. Megan was pretty easy going about the whole event– given the choice between her home parish (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) and my home parish, she said she didn’t care; given the choice of where to grab lunch afterward, she said she didn’t care about that either. She was pretty cordial, too- she said “hello” and “nice to meet you” to everyone I introduced her to. Knowing her for all of her life, I expected all of this.

What I did not expect was this:

About two seconds after introducing Megan to Christyn, Christyn asked Megan if she would like to “do gifts” with her. And about two seconds after that, Megan said, “Umm…sure.”

I was a bit shocked, both by Christyn’s actions, and by Megan’s response. I was thinking, “What’s the best way to make someone new uncomfortable? Ask them to play a significant role in whatever is going on.” But that’s exactly what happened. And Megan accepted.

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that what had just happened in front of me mirrored what needs to happen in an authentic Christian environment, full of people who are trying to be authentically Christian.

Christianity requires invitations. It requires us to invite others to be a part of what is going on in our lives. Not only for our good, but for his or her good as well. It requires us to step outside of our comfort zone for a minute and provide others the possibility to be a part of our lives. Not just our physical lives, but our spiritual lives as well.

Christianity also requires that we accept those invitations, those ones that we’re not so comfortable with, the ones that we know could change things, could change us. Again, we must be able to step outside of our comfort zone and say “YES!” to something we can’t even prove. We must be ready to push ourselves to open up to others, to be real with them, if a Christian environment is going to work. We must challenge ourselves and be prepared to be challenged by others.

This past Sunday, I learned just how important one simple question and one simple answer could be.

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Judging by the number of phone calls, text messages, emails, and IMs I’ve received the past few days, a couple of you have noticed that the website was not working like it normally does. Never fear, though. After much investigation, I figured out what was causing the problem (someone wanted some money) and have remedied the situation (by providing some money). We should be good to go for at least another year. (: Enjoy.

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One of my favorite songs, probably ever, is Nelly’s Ride Wit Me. I know that it doesn’t have the best lyrics and glorifies things that probably shouldn’t be glorified, but still, I like it. It is, for me, one of those great summertime, windows down, stereo volume up, highway-type songs. So very fun and so catchy. Perhaps my favorite line comes from the beginning of the bridge:

I know somethin’ you don’t know, and I got somethin’ to tell ya…

That exact line popped into my head while I was at church yesterday. As is evidenced by a couple of past posts by me, I have often been inspired by the recipients of Holy Communion, but yesterday it was a Eucharistic Minister that had me in awe. I could tell the way Jennie was distributing hosts that, not only did she completely believe what she was telling each recipient (”The Body of Christ”), but that that belief had made an authentic and personal difference in her life. It had transformed her, the same way the bread had been transformed into the Body of Christ. She was standing there, sharing that secret with each person, saying, “I know somethin’ you don’t know, and I got somethin’ to tell ya,” in her own little way.

Simply beautiful.

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Since the middle of December, I have been watching the sun rise a minute or two earlier everyday. Mind you, I haven’t been getting up, stepping outside, and actively watching the sun rise. Instead, I notice the miniscule changes in the rising time via my way to work. In December…and January…and most of February I had to have my lights on while driving to work. Ever so slowly, as the days got a little longer, I had to use my lights for less and less of the drive to work. Finally, just a week or two ago, I was headlight free, as the sun finally rose before I began my journey to work.

And now I’m right where I began, leaving for work in complete darkness. This Daylight Savings Time thing has completely messed me up. I know that driving to work in daylight or darkness really isn’t that big of a deal when I think about it, but it does affect my mood. I felt so much better, and had so much more energy in the morning, when I drove to work in daylight.

I feel like this change mimics my faith life sometimes. I’ll be trodding along, doing a little bit better each day in my spiritual journey, when out of nowhere, something I cannot control sets me back. I’m left wondering what the heck happened and how long it will take to get back to where I was before. Sometimes I wish that I had more control over how I feel spiritually.

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