Student assembly address:
The reading this Sunday at Church was about the ten lepers who were cured by Jesus, but only one person came back to say “thanks.” The other nine simply went about their lives. There’s a pretty strong challenge in there for you and I whom have been given so much.
The reading this Sunday at Church was about the ten lepers who were cured by Jesus, but only one person came back to say “thanks.” The other nine simply went about their lives. There’s a pretty strong challenge in there for you and I whom have been given so much.
It’s easy, though, isn’t it, to take it for granted?
In the spring of 2008, I was hired by the Board to become
headmaster of JPII. Previous to
that I was a principal in Montgomery, AL, about a five-hour drive from here. As
part of the series of interviews, I had to come up here three different times,
and after I was hired, the Board wanted me to come to two separate events to
meet people. Spring is a busy time for schools, and I remember the fifth time as I was driving up, I had a hundred things going on at my old school, and I remember being
stressed and irritated that I had to come yet again with the work
piling up. Our house wasn’t sold yet, I hadn’t spent much time with my daughter
who was a senior that year and going to college in the fall, and yes, I was
feeling a little sorry for myself.
I stopped off to get some gas—I think it was in
Franklin—when an old beat up looking man drove up to the gas pump in a beat up
pick-up truck and said to me “Hey, fella, I’m out of money, could you spare ten
bucks to help me with some gas?” Suspicious he was really out just to get money
for alcohol, I said, “When I go in and pay, I’ll put ten dollars on your
pump.” So I did. When I came out,
the man looked toward me, embarrassed, head down, and said “Gratitude.”
As I drove off, I began thinking about what the old guy
said, “Gratitude,” and being a bit unnerved by it, almost like God was talking
to me directly. Here you are, God was saying, with a wonderful wife, four great
kids, just hired to be the leader of one of the best Catholic high schools in
the country and you’re feeling sorry for myself? How about taking a step back
and seeing the big picture? How about some gratitude?
I think that’s a challenge for all of us. We’ve been given
so many extraordinary things, beginning with our families, but extending to our
friends, our teachers, our school, the fact that our families have a little
money that allow us to enjoy good things--and yet, it’s so easy to start
feeling sorry for ourselves. It’s so easy for that green-eyed monster, jealousy, to seep into how we see the world--jealous of people who are prettier, wealthier, more personable, more popular, even luckier, than us
Fr. Thomas said in Church yesterday there are two kinds of
people in this world: Those who wake up every morning and said, “Good morning, God!” and
those who say, “Good God, morning.” Let us be the kind of people who are grateful
to be here at JPII, grateful to be a student here, to be a teacher here, to be
on staff here, to be a principal here. There are too many people that are “woe is me” mopers in this world, and they
suck joy out of all the people they associate with, almost like the dementors from Harry Potter. Let’s be the opposite!
Let us be people of gratitude who can say, as one person
once prayed, “God, for all that has been in my life, thank you. For all that
will be, yes!”
