Chet Collins's Blog: Catholic Husband, page 17

Time to Care

It’s easy, when time is tight, to cut the things that benefit us. Exercise, meal prep, prayer, these are activities that seem disposable, but are in reality the secret to our success. We’re responsible for the care of others, but we won’t be successful unless we first take the time to care for ourselves.

This is a recurring them that I’ve contended with over the past nine years, and more. The standard set of daily activities that I need to live a balanced life and be prepared for the responsibili...

True Gratitude

Thanksgiving is a remarkably calm period in my life. Not only does it signal the final few weeks of the year, but around this time, I get a palpable feeling of renewal. Major projects are winding down, and I start to ruminate on the bigger things in life. I reflect on the year that was, and start to plan for the year that is to come.

Amid this pause, we collectively take a breath and focus on gratitude. This year, my thoughts are turning more towards true gratitude. It’s simple, and right, that I...

Enjoy Today

Living life day-to-day is not easy, nor is it simple. In many ways, it’s boring and mundane. I never look forward to Monday because I know the busyness of laundry, school, and work that awaits me. It can be easy to think of life like a game of the Sims, wishing I could just fast-forward to bedtime, call it a day, and move on to something new and different tomorrow.

Each day may not feel like a gift, but they all have little treasures buried deep inside. The way to find the treasure is to be prese...

Torrents of Mercy

We have a sanitized view of Jesus’ crucifixion. Although we have visuals of it everywhere, the sheer brutality is almost too difficult to think about. Jesus’ torture and execution were not an academic exercise. It was an act of total love and surrender, a bold statement about the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of life that changed the course of human history.

There is no limiting principle to God’s mercy; that’s one reason it is so unfathomable. How can God forgive such grievous o...

Constant Renewal

The great spiritual lesson of St. Francis was that the key to a healthy spiritual life is to have a mindset of constant renewal. We live in a fallen state, among a fallen world, and to enter into the presence of God, we must reclaim the perfection that He intended for us. That is no easy task, nor is it a one-and-done type of objective. It’s the work of a lifetime.

Impermanence is the nature of life; things are always in motion and changing. Embracing a mindset of constant renewal inspires a sens...

Overrun

Temptation is a very personal thing. Each of us struggle with our blend of habitual sin. It’s not that we’re failures in the spiritual life, it’s that we all have our weaknesses. After weeks, months, and years of confessing the same things, it’s tempting to let ourselves be overrun.

Why keep fighting a losing battle? Why keep going through the same cycle, never with a different result? Why fight a battle for 80 years when it seems like we’ll never beat that sin?

The answer is found in our failings...

The Emperor Has No Clothes

Hypocrisy is part of what it means to be human. We’re deeply flawed. To have the expectation that we can live our lives with the rock solid integrity of Atticus Finch is unreasonable. The real problem is not when we find that we have erred, but when we refuse to admit the reality. No where does this play out more clearly, or more publicly, than in the political world.

Politicians sell narratives as a part of their bid to keep their jobs and maintain power. On both sides of the aisle, we see peopl...

Share Your Best Work

Sharing your work is a frightening thought. As I write many of these posts, thoughts creep up in my mind about how they will be received. Is this the best thing that I’ve ever written, or the worst? Will that post cause controversy? This is the essential dilemma that we face every day: can I be who I truly am, and will I be accepted for it?

The Sexualization of Everything

I have to imagine that there was a time in human history when every human relationship wasn’t sexualized. No doubt, we’ve always had a certain fascination with sex, but not to the point where it must apply to everything. We’ve forgotten that love emits of degrees; rediscovering that simple truth could significantly improve all relationships.

Balance

I left the workforce in the fall of 2014 to stay home and take care of Benedict. Alison was just beginning her residency, and her monthly schedule change was not conducive to parenting and both parents working. Fast-forward eight years, I’m still an at-home dad, but now with four children and homeschooling two of them. I’m running my own business and busier than ever. Things are nearing a breaking point.