We look at Christ as example of how to live. In ministry, charity, prayer life, and so forth. Also, we should look to Him as an example on how to die. In His own humanness, he went through anguish especially in knowing what was ahead and having to suffer gruesomely without mercy. When I made the decision to move back home to Los Angeles, California, it was with martyrdom in mind. I had to prepare for the persecution that needs to be endured. Everyone goes through some form of it, in one way or another. I had already gone through prejudice, ridicule, failure, and heartaches. I was battle tested, a veteran, a champion. I felt ready!
“Affliction produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
-Fr. Mike Schmitz
I was ready to embark into the unknown. I was ready to die, maybe that meant just die to myself. After all, when a man gets married, he is mainly portrayed in a black suit, while the bride is glorified in white resembling purity, and new beginnings. The man basically attends his own funeral by choice, signaling the end, because he chooses to willingly die to himself for the woman he loves. Nevertheless, he also like the bride begins a new chapter. It’s the end of an old life and the beginning of a new! What a wondrous vocation, if it is in God’s will. I came here to die!
I’m not scared to death of dying, I’m scared to death of dying and having God tell me, ‘(Angelica), this might have been you had you trusted more.’”
-Mother Angelica (Catholic nun of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration)
Last week, I was going up and down the mountains of Big Bear, California, completing obstacle after obstacle, and hours later felt like I have exhausted every inch of my being. There is something you discover after enduring pain, over and over again. Even when the rankings showed improvement, recognition, and new personal records. Deep down you realize something, that you’re only getting started. There will be faster times and more awards because the more you practice something, the stronger you get. Deep down, you know you have become too tough to kill because you are doing things that most people wouldn’t even dare. This isn’t about running, or competing. This isn’t about marriage or careers. People still wouldn’t even dare.
“It is YOU, You passed an unimaginable test that many of the toughest Marines, commanders, green berets, astronauts, and geniuses could not. You are made of heroes who ever lived, heroes born among ordinary people and shine in the dark.”
-Christian Blanchon, French General
20 years ago, I began a teaching and coaching career. I was surrounded by so many mentors. Men with such wisdom. I wanted to be like them. Did I really? I didn’t want their life at all. I wanted their confidence. They told me the story about the young bull and the old bull. Both the young and old bull went up the hill and saw a herd of cows. The young bull, jumping up and down, overly excited, asked, “Are we gonna get one?“ The old bull, calm and collected, very well regulated, stoic, and wise, answered: “Get one? No, we’re gonna go down there, and we’re gonna get ‘em all!” I understood what they meant, and they understood and had an idea of where I was heading.
“God wants you to be in the world, but so different from the world that you will change it. Get cracking.”
-Mother Angelica
I was the young bull once, perhaps satisfied with one victory, one accomplishment, or one chance. I wouldn’t call myself the old bull now, but perhaps a polished one. A bull that says, with credibility, experience, confidence, FAITH, and assurance, “We’re gonna get it all!!” Everything is there for the taking with an abundance state of mind. Something small to a giant of a bull. The world is not nice to low confident loud performing bulls, but it bows at the feet of silent deadly (the irony) ones. Like a rebel, always taking the road less traveled. Always taking everything in its path.
“When you're a little more excited than you're afraid, that's when you begin.”
-The Better Man Project
I’m here to lead people, I’m here to serve, I’m here to die! Is this my destiny? Martyrdom is daily. Maybe not like a movie plot, but when you trust God, he leads to places for the good of His Kingdom. When you begin to walk in that valley of the shadow of death, there is nothing to fear. All of a sudden a swarm of angels and intercessors are about to rush through. If it is from God, nothing can stop it. Long live Christ the King!
“Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening but sweet and precious.”
-St. Rose of Viterbo
