Loquaciousness and The Cross

As early as five years old, I remember talking to God. I don’t offer this as anything remarkable. Some would explain my habit as mere youthful reaction to our family’s routine attendance of Mass. The truth is God had mercifully called me into a relationship with Him, something He initiates for people beginning at all ages.

As a kid, I attended a Roman Catholic school. Amongst my teachers, mostly priests and nuns, there were both strict disciplinarians and those I regarded as really cool.

Perhaps you’re familiar with the concept of ‘greatest strength, greatest weakness?’

It was during my time at this school that I discovered mine was talking.

My search to be heard often got me into trouble. Let’s just say that I was well acquainted with the practice of ‘time-out’, as well as trips to the principal’s office.

However, my parents were thrilled to learn that there was an upside to this challenge. When I was 8, the priests in charge of the high school morning chapel began taking me out of class so I could read the Stations of the Cross.  I had volunteered to do this for the grade school chapel and loved it. In the wake of no volunteers amongst the high-schoolers, I was drafted. I can remember being passionate about the readings which describe the torture and death of Jesus as He sacrificed Himself to free us from bondage to our sin.

Thankfully, my passion for the gospel, by the grace of God alone, has not waned over the years, in spite of innumerable distractions, many of which I have brought upon myself. I still am blown away that God sent His Only-Begotten Son to become a man, live the only sinless life ever, die a horrible death, be buried and resurrected three days later so that I and all whom God has saved might have abundant life.