Faithful Beginnings

Last week, Sister Olive Louise Dallavis, Avila University president emerita, my wife, and I enjoyed dinner with a couple who are long time friends of the University. The dinner was in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary and we felt very honored and blessed to be part of their special evening. Over the course of the dinner, the husband described a time when he and his wife were still newly married. He asked her to take their children to church while he went to the cathedral to pray. He said that he needed to find his direction in life, or more precisely, the direction God most wanted from him. He went on to describe how he found a calling that perfectly blended his passions with his talents in the world of insurance sales.

That was the second time in one week where someone had shared with me an experience of acting to help bring about God's kingdom.

The first instance was earlier in the week when I parked next to a student with an interesting license plate. He told me about how the plate reflected his mission and ministry in life. I was touched by the strength of his faith and his absolute readiness to faithfully and fully act upon it. I felt Avila was blessed to have students like this young man.

I have been taking a course on the Person and Ministry of Christ this semester. What comes through strongly in my readings is Christ's message that the Kingdom of God is now, breaking-in in our midst. It isn't a message several thousand years old, but one relevant in the present. I think all of us are asked to find what role we play in bringing the Kingdom of God more alive in our world. I also think it is found prayerfully when we find the intersection between our deepest passions (what moves our hearts), our greatest gifts and talents, and what the world most needs.

My question to all of us at Avila is how are we being called to bring about the Kingdom of God in the day-to-day lives of the University, and if we sense God's calling, are we open to respond? I believe in doing so we will find the happiness, success, and satisfaction that my dining companions found during their 60 years of marriage; one that is grounded in a faithful beginning.