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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
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Mettle maker #421: Getting in Gear
Have you ever heard or spoken something that resembles one of these:
“If I had a cool boat, I could escape the rat race, cruise around the lake, relax, and have a great time.”
“If I had a perfect home gym, I could finally take the plunge, lose this spare tire, and get back in shape.”
“As soon as I get through this rough patch, and get back on track.”
“I’m going to save up some money, take my wife on a fancy european vacation, and rescue our struggling marriage.”
“If I could afford a membership to the big gym and a weightlifting coach, I could get super strong and take my martial arts training to the next level.”
“I’ll start on Monday.”
All of this is is complete hogwash.
You may not have the perfect equipment. The timing or conditions may not be great. Fair enough. But there is something you can do, right here and right now, to move toward your ultimate goal.
“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” Theodore Roosevelt
Here are my comebacks to the above statements.
“If I had a cool boat, I could escape the rat race, cruise around the lake, relax, and have a great time.” Probably what you really want is to go fishing and do fun stuff with your buddies, or to feel the wind in your hair. You don’t need a boat to do either. Just go to the lake. Pack lunch, have a picnic, fish off the dock, invite your friends. It’ll work just as well, you won’t have to wait, and it’ll be way cheaper.
“If I had a home gym, I could finally take the plunge, lose this spare tire, and get back in shape.” Walking and calisthenics are still the best and safest forms of exercise there are. Both require no equipment and will build muscle. And by the way, the cause of weight gain is eating too much food. You can lose weight without exercise. Stop deflecting.
“As soon as I get through this rough patch, and get back on track.” You are lying to yourself. Life is one rough patch after another. There’s never going to be a patch with no roughness long enough for you to magically get on track. Start now.
“I’m going to save up some money, take my wife on a fancy European vacation, and rescue our struggling marriage.” If your marriage is struggling, it’s not because you two are suffering from a European vacation deficiency. The problems will manifest just in readily in Europe as they do at home. Find the real problems and confront them together. Most couples simply don’t pay enough attention to one another, don’t do things together, play together, or pray together. Watch my video, “The Kiss” above.
“If I could afford a membership to the big gym and a weightlifting coach, I could get super strong and take my martial arts training to the next level.” Utter lunacy. Fitness is specific. Would you expect a world-class gymnast to be good at throwing the javelin? Would you expect an NFL lineman to be good at tennis? If you want to be a great martial artist, do martial arts, and restrict your red-line training to martial arts only. Everything else should be done in moderation.
“I’ll start on Monday.” Tater tots. You’ve said this every Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday for the last three years. Please stop the insanity and start doing whatever it is you know you need to do right now, this very instant. You will do it poorly. Who cares? Do it poorly long enough and you’ll start to do it well. Ya gotta start somewhere!
You don’t need gear, you need to get in gear. You don’t need need the perfect situation, you need to situate yourself perfectly. Action and attitude go a long way!
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Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, 9/1/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8, Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5, Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27, Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 World English Bible
Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem. 2 Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is unwashed, hands, they found fault. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?”
6 He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
7 They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’*
8 “For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”
14 He called all the multitude to himself and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. 15 There is nothing from outside of the man that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
21 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”
Brothers and sisters, the things we eat are material. They contain a variety of nutrients, like fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They are essential to human life. The things we put into our mouths fuel our activities. And without question it’s a great idea to wash our hands before we eat them, and to be conscious of the fact that contaminants like pesticides, debris, bacteria, and parasites can cause serious diseases or even death.
That’s the surface level view. But if we go just one layer up, we find that there is something going with food that we don’t quite understand. Repeated studies show that whole foods cooked at home promote health more effectively than eating adulterated or fast foods and then trying to set things right by taking vitamins and supplements. Nourishing food contains invisible ingredients that are hard to measure and quantify, like amino acids and enzymes. But it’s more than that. Preparing food yourself and sharing it with others creates social bonds and has profound, but less material, benefits.
According to the non-profit Family Dinner Project, “decades of research have shown that regular family meals offer a wide variety of physical, social-emotional and academic benefits. While some of these benefits can be gained through other activities, eating together is the only single activity that is known to provide all of them at the same time.”¹
What Jesus is saying here is that washing our hands, the pitchers, plates and utensils in a particular way, according to a higher material standard, does not prevent us from bringing negativity, evil thoughts, pride, lust, and anger to the table. Washing our hands and forearms won’t stop us from being mean and nasty. Cleaning the plates and bowls won’t stop us from arguing about politics over the mac ’n’ cheese. What comes out of our mouths will defile us, not what’s going in.
What we eat at the dinner table and how we share it brings with it a variety of physical, social, and emotional benefits. That’s an elevated observation. But if we go up still higher, we should also be able to see how this week’s lesson is related to the two John 6 readings from the two previous Sundays. No matter what it is – whether it’s steak and potatoes, a vegan spectacular, a Whopper or a Big Mac – it can’t make us want to be a better men or women. My wife’s spaghetti with meatballs is amazing, but it can’t inspire my family and our guests to take care of widows and orphans. Her meatloaf is better than filet mignon, but it cannot purify our souls.
The only food that can do that is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, we have no life in us. For his Body and Blood are True Food and True Drink; and if we eat of them, we live in Christ and he in us (John 6:53-56). This is the highest quality nourishment – the only food that can change what comes out of our mouths.
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* 7:7 Isaiah 29:13
¹ https://thefamilydinnerproject.org/about-us/benefits-of-family-dinners/