In order to keep the Blog page specifically for the purpose of my Great Adventure reflections, I figured I would put a bit about myself here on this separate page.
First and foremost, I am a child of God, and the purpose of my life has finally become about one thing: Him. Or at least, that’s the end goal, right? And sure, my life is filled with blessings, including the three people with me in the picture above (my three greatest ones in fact), but those things have only been given to me because our God is loving. Our God is love, in fact, as St. John tells us. It is through loving God that I am enabled to love my family with His love, and in exchange, my love for my family reflects love back to my God. In short, my life has become one big celebration of love, and I’m so grateful to Him that He led me to this point before it was too late.
For those that have known me even a little over the last couple decades, these words might seem jarring coming from me. I have never really broadcast it during my lifetime so far, but I am and have always been–since the day of my Baptism at three months old–a Catholic. I had a pretty typical upbringing in the Church: receiving all of my sacraments at the appropriate age, attending Mass every Sunday, going to “Sunday School”, and even becoming an altar server for a stint. I would say that my life was “moderately Catholic” all the way up until around 2015, when I was 25-years-old.
I don’t really know what happened, but I finally started to drift further and further from the Church, and from Jesus. It was a number of things (not really worth listing here for the purpose of this bio), but I, and my wife, finally reached a point where we had all but abandoned the Catholic faith altogether. A sad end for a couple that formed the basis of their early relationship on going to Mass together, and who were married in the Church only a year or so prior. When our boys were born, we had them Baptized out of tradition more than anything, and then proceeded to drift.
Last year, in the darkest depths of my life, I finally found Jesus again. The funny thing was that I had always expected that I’d have to come knocking at a big wooden door with iron handles, begging and pleading to be heard by the Big Man. Then, if He finally did have pity enough on me to let me in, I’d then have to beg even more and hope that He wouldn’t just turn completely away from me and leave the room altogether. But what I found was that I simply had to look up, and there He was. He had been there all along, just waiting for me to come home. And I didn’t have to beg or plead; I only had to ask.
That’s the loving, merciful God that I have come to know over the last several months. And the best part is, I’m only just getting started. I can’t wait to get to know Him better than I ever have before, both through the practice of my faith, and through the reading and study of His word. The latter is the primary purpose of this site; but who knows? If the Lord God calls upon me to do more, to walk further, I’ll be ready.
Will you join me?
In Christ,
Sam
Sam's Great Adventure 