Inspiration

This Week’s Inspiration:  →  Camp Gray 

5 Things summer hiatus was spent on 225 acres of God’s goodness. Many of you know of my love for Camp and the joy that it brings people. This blog is coming out on Alumni Giving Day for Camp, so feel free to click this link to support this incredible place! 

Also, here is Camp Gray Films latest creation, Holy Ground.

Lastly, here is another one of my favorite videos from Camp Gray Films, Paradox.

Hopefully these videos will help illustrate my passion for this place. Feel free to check out Camp’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter!

Previous Inspirations:

The Alchemist

The Alchemist is a great novel and a quick read. It hits on themes like following your dreams and “when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true.” The story written by Paulo Coelho in 1988 has become a best-seller and beloved by many.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a wonderful resource that strives to “provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere.” They have explanatory videos on most school subjects including math, grammar, and science. Most of their explanations are worth exploring whether you want to learn a new topic, or are struggling to understand a certain concept.

Pints with Aquinas

The premise of this podcast and site:

“If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him any one question, what would it be? Every episode of Pints With Aquinas addresses a question St. Thomas answers in the Summa Theologiae, as well as other works of his.”

Matt Fradd is a wonderful speaker who walks us through some of Aquinas’ works. The podcasts are entertaining, insightful, and thought-provoking.

Andre Ingram’s Debut

Would you spend 10 years in pursuit of your dream? Andre Ingram has spent the last 10 seasons in the NBA’s G League (essentially its minor league) desperately chasing an opportunity to play in the NBA. And not only did he play, but he deliver 19 points in his first game!

Ingram is obviously a feel good story, but his example teaches some great lessons about pursuing our dreams. The three main points in this great Entrepreneur article about Ingram are 1) Never, ever stop fighting for your dreams. 2) Trust the process and never stop believing. 3) Be ready for your moment.

So, to end this on a huge cliche….follow your dreams and seek them with relentless vigor.

Michael Brandwein

This past week, I had the good fortune of attending the American Camp Association Midstates Conference. There I got to see one of my favorite speakers Michael Brandwein. Michael is a leading voice in the camping industry as well as business development. Here is a short sample of Michael’s dynamic speaking style as he discusses the Secret of Life!

Fr. Jacques Philippe

Yesterday, Fr. Jacques Philippe spent the day at Camp Gray. Fr. Jacques is a French priest and has written a number of spiritual books. His books Interior Freedom and In the School of the Holy Spirit are two books by him I would highly recommend. I hope you find someone like Fr. Jacques who is able to have their writings speak to your heart.

March Madness!

The next four days are perhaps the most fun weekend in all of sports. Basketball, upsets, and crazy college mascots and students all on four channels for 12 hours a day. Cinderellas will rise and favorites will fall.  The weekend is full of entertaining and exhilarating moments, as well as heartwarming and heartbreaking stories. Enjoy it!

Side note: While I filled out a few brackets, my main Final Four include Villanova, Kansas, Cincinnati, and Xavier with Villanova winning over the Xavier.

How I Built This

In this NPR podcast, Guy Raz “dives into the stories behind some of the world’s best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built” (NPR). It is almost like a mini biography of these influential leaders from companies like Kate Spade, Southwest, LinkedIn, and many more.

Dr. Seuss

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and National Read Across America Day. Dr. Seuss was an integral part of many childhoods, including mine, with books like Hop on Pop, Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Oh the Places You’ll Go, and The Lorax to name just a few. His books are fun, goofy, entertaining, and beloved by millions. He also is the mind behind many wonderful quotes such as the ones in this link. Go read a Dr. Seuss book in his honor this weekend!

Kayla Rhuby’s National Anthem

This week’s inspiration needs a little context. It has been hard for me to feel patriotic this week. The gun control debate in the wake of the Parkland school shooting has left tensions high. The Olympics wrap up on Sunday, and despite some great performances (women’s hockey and Shaun White to name a couple) Team USA has been less than stellar. Lastly, Fergie sang a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that was, well, interesting and has drawn criticism to say the least.  With that all said, this incredible performance of the national anthem from Kayla Rhuby (a high school senior!) kept popping into my head. This video focuses on Challenger the eagle and the 9/11 tribute, but you can still hear Kayla’s performance. Also, she is set to release an album this year! You can also check out more of her music on Soundcloud here!

Prayer for Beginners by Peter Kreeft

Lent has begun and maybe you want to dedicate yourself to more prayer time. Maybe you just find it hard to pray in general because you feel like you are just sitting in silence. This book is not just for beginners, but for anyone who wants to revitalize their prayer life. Peter Kreeft is logical, accessible, succinct, and entertaining. He is one of my favorite writers and is bound to make another appearance on the blog.

Best Lent Ever with Dynamic Catholic

Want to up your game for Lent this year? Check out the free email program from Dynamic Catholic. Every day will help give you inspiring stories and a day by day guide to improve every day. Become the best-version-of-yourself this Lent and sign up!

Man’s Search for Meaning

This book by Viktor Frankl is an incredible story of his time in German concentration camps.  Here is a brief synopsis from the website HighExistence:

“A blend between a memoir, a psychological investigation and a self-help book, Frankl delivers a powerful message: finding meaning lies at the core of being human. From his own experience as a psychiatrist combined with anecdotes from his time in the concentration camps, he tells us how important it is to find meaning in our own lives and what we can become if we don’t. Suffering, he conveys to us, is inevitable. But as to how we cope with it is dependent on ourselves. If we can find meaning, even in the worst acts our species has ever inflicted upon his fellow man, we will be able to move forward with renewed purpose.”

Rend Collective 

Last Friday, Rend Collective dropped their new album. Some personal favorites from the new album include: Life is Beautiful, Marching On, and True North.

St. Sebastian

Saint Sebastian is my confirmation saint and his feast day is on Saturday! Here is a quick story:

Sebastian was a Christian in the Roman army. When he was found out, he was brought before Emperor Diocletian and sentenced to death by a firing squad of archers. He was shot and left for dead. He was nurtured back to health by those who were supposed to bury him. He returned to face the Emperor and decried his cruelty against Christians. He was caught and beaten to death with clubs.

So, yeah…..Sebastian, a Christian martyr, is a rock star. I pray we all have the zeal in our faith that Sebastian had.

Jim Caviezel at SLS18

Watch this video for what will be the best 15 minutes of your week.  I was able to witness this in person. You see, last week I had the genuine pleasure of attending the FOCUS SLS18 conference. A gathering of over 8,000 Catholics in Chicago was inspiring and fulfilling. As you see at the start of this video, they showed a trailer for Jim Caviezel’s new movie about Paul the apostle. Then, Jim Caviezel showed up. And blew everyone’s mind.

Star Wars, Civic Duty, and the Minnesota Catholic Conference

I came across this article written by a member of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. It brings together two of passions: Star Wars and civic duty. The Minnesota Catholic Conference is also a wonderful resource. Every state has their own Catholic Conference to advise Catholics on how certain pieces of legislation will impact them. However, Minnesota has a wonderful social media presence and I would encourage you to check it out. 

The Catholic Gentleman

This week I want to encourage you all (men in particular) to “Be a man. Be a saint.” We are living in a time when there are sex scandals, abuse of power, a lack of true identity and manliness. Insert the Catholic Gentleman. There are lots of great articles about true manliness and masculinity. Per their site: “you’ll find posts about manly saints you can imitate, beer, dressing sharp, marriage, spiritual weapons and a lot more. ” Enjoy!

One Percent Challenge

Recently Spotify released their year in review stats for users. People spend tens of thousands of minutes listening to music every day. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it got me thinking about how we spend our time. Faith probably lands pretty high on most of our priority lists. But, we often don’t prioritize it. However, I promise you 1% of your day can change your life. 1% of your day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds. “Less than the average minutes of commercials in a 1 hour tv program.” I encourage you to renew your commitment to faith this Advent. Try the 1% challenge.

Jimmy V Week

“Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” -Jimmy V.

Watch this. It will be the best 11 minutes of your week.

Check out the wonderful work the V Foundation is doing to support cancer research and programs.

Wild Goose with Fr. Dave

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Stuebenville Young Adult Conference called Encounter (shout out!). Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR celebrated Mass and helped encourage about 700 young adults to encounter the Holy Spirit and let it guide their lives. Similarly, Fr. Dave teams with 4PM Media to create the Wild Goose series to “invite Catholic Christians into a more profound life giving relationship with the Holy Spirit.”

Happiness – Peter Kreeft

Here is the audio of one of my favorite lectures of all time. I know it is an hour, but Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College, is entertaining, insightful, profound, yet succinct. I’ve listened to this lecture many times and always find a new nugget of wisdom.

Tuesdays with Morrie 

20 years ago, Mitch Albom wrote an international best seller. It is a heart-warming story about an old sociology professor suffering from ALS who tries to pass on his wisdom about life to a former student. They cover topics of family, career, love, and more. A super simple and quick read that will help put the right perspective on life for you.

 

 Defy Designs 

This week, I wanted to highlight and give a shout out to Defy Designs for making my blog prettier than I ever could. Jordan created Defy Designs “because I believe we are called to something greater. We are called to defy mediocrity.” These backgrounds for your phone or desktop will help inspire you and make your day. With Bible verses, song lyrics, and quotes these beautiful designs can make any device prettier. Please check them out and a huge thank you to Defy Designs!

Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

David, are you really recommending a kid’s book? YEP! Because Narnia is so much more than a children’s story. There are Christian themes of temptation, forgiveness, faith, and many others (as Lewis was indeed a Christian writer.) There are also sword fights, sea voyages, dragons, centaurs, unicorns, and any other creature you could imagine.  I love the Last Battle as Lewis describes the end of time and the paradise that is heaven.  Each of these seven stories are only about 100-200 page books that you will thoroughly enjoy.

 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This is one of the most well-known leadership/self-improvement books of all-time. It also happened to be a textbook for the best (and my favorite) class I took in college. In this book, Stephen Covey strives to show people how to best to build a personal character ethic and find their “true north.” Covey explains that this isn’t a novel to be read once, but a toolkit to help you grow constantly and continuously.

Word on Fire/Bishop Barron’s Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron and the folks at Word on Fire create awesome Catholic content. They have study programs, blogs, videos, lectures, sermons, homilies, guides, and more. Creators of the renowned Catholicism video series, Word on Fire is doing incredible work. They make the faith accessible, tangible, and relatable.

Kid President

 

 

 

 

I am a firm believer that we should all spend more time with people under the age of 10 and over the age of 70. Kid President helps remind me of why. Perhaps you need a Pep Talk, or advice on how to make the world more awesome, or you want to send a thank you to your Mom.

Matthew Kelly’s Rhythm of Life

I can guarantee this will not be the only time that Matthew Kelly and his work will make an appearance on my blog. This week specifically, I would point you towards one of his earlier works Rhythm of Life.

The tagline of this book is “Living Everyday with Passion and Purpose.” Matthew Kelly encourages us to take care of the four aspects of the self: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Matthew Kelly’s writings strive to empower us to become the “best-version-of-ourselves.”

I will also give quick shout out to Matthew Kelly’s organization, Dynamic Catholic. Check out the wonderful work they do!

How Great Leaders Inspire Action: Inspired by Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why

This week, one of my favorite writers and speakers, Simon Sinek is the inspiration of the week. His classic book, Start with Why, is the focus of his website and the linked TED talk above. Sinek’s ability to concisely and coherently convey feelings that many of us have is among his many talents.

Bonus Inspirations:  As a bonus recommendation from Sinek, I would also recommend his book Leaders Eat Last. If you want a synopsis of that book, check out his talk by the same title. I would also highly recommend any of Sinek’s books, lectures, or videos that you can find. Also, check out more of the top TED Talks of all time.

Fr. Mike Schmitz

Check out Fr. Mike Schmitz Podcasts! He usually publishes a 5-10 minute podcast weekly ranging on many topics. A personal favorite of mine published recently is his podcast titled “Training vs Working Out .”  Fr. Mike does wonderful work at UM-Duluth as their chaplain as well as with Ascension Presents in order to create this media.