In these challenging times so many young people are facing a crisis of hope. What can we do as Catholic educators to help them keep their focus on a brighter tomorrow even when it seems implausible? In this episode, it’s time to explore how the firm decision to become traders in the commodity of hope can have a big impact on the lives of each young person that God places in our care.
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome friends to the Catholic teacher.
Speaker:Daily podcast has been a little break, but we're back.
Speaker:We've been navigating lockdowns here again with the COVID issues.
Speaker:So, uh, you could be hearing this.
Speaker:At a different time when things have all changed, but right now
Speaker:we're in lockdown and Karen and I have been pivoting rapidly.
Speaker:Into homeschooling mode.
Speaker:We have three young children.
Speaker:So I have been putting back on my teacher hat and taking care of the schooling
Speaker:everyday, which look has been great.
Speaker:I was, you know, a teacher by training and.
Speaker:And by disposition.
Speaker:So it's quite a privilege to have this time with the kids.
Speaker:Uh, as many parents know it's not easy of course, to juggle all these
Speaker:different responsibilities, but.
Speaker:You know where sin, abounds, grace abounds, even more because even in
Speaker:these difficult, challenging times, there is plenty of grace around.
Speaker:If we know where to go looking.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:We're all listening in a different set of circumstances.
Speaker:I know many of my American listeners.
Speaker:I just heading back into the new school year.
Speaker:And, uh, there's all sorts of, you know, uncertainty around lockdowns and
Speaker:face-to-face schooling and mosque mandates and all sorts of stuff that's happening.
Speaker:So we can all agree that, uh, Whoever's listening today.
Speaker:We're all going to be in a different circumstance.
Speaker:But what I want to talk about is going to be relevant for
Speaker:absolutely every single one of us.
Speaker:I believe that what's happening is a real pandemic of fear.
Speaker:For our young people.
Speaker:I think there is so much stress and fear and uncertainty.
Speaker:On multiple levels for young people.
Speaker:And they are reporting all sorts of challenges in terms of mental health.
Speaker:And you as educators are very familiar with this.
Speaker:So I want to offer something today.
Speaker:That I think can be really useful, whether you are face-to-face
Speaker:again, or whether you're doing.
Speaker:Uh, remote learning.
Speaker:And as an educator, you're dialing in by zoom each day.
Speaker:Uh, I know that my kids.
Speaker:At least two of them, uh, In, you know, zoom face-to-face contact.
Speaker:Is that a oxymoron?
Speaker:Zoom face-to-face contact.
Speaker:Uh, are in daily contact via zoom with their teachers.
Speaker:And what I want to talk to you today is about hope.
Speaker:I think really what we're facing.
Speaker:In this pandemic amongst, you know, many different factors is a crisis of hope.
Speaker:And I think our young people, whether they can articulate this or not, Uh,
Speaker:dealing with this anxiety and a loss of hope, a hope about their own futures.
Speaker:Uh, and depending on the age of the children, there can be a lot
Speaker:of anxiety for younger children.
Speaker:Uh, teenagers are missing out.
Speaker:I'm missing out on a lot of social connection interaction.
Speaker:I know my daughter who's in a teens now is just really missing her social
Speaker:connections with a good friends.
Speaker:And then, you know, you've got, um,
Speaker:Older teens who are just also really uncertain and losing hope
Speaker:about their own future and their prospects and their studies.
Speaker:So I'm going to argue in this short episode that we're in a crisis of
Speaker:hope and one of the great things about Catholic education, one of the great
Speaker:things about you as a Catholic educator,
Speaker:Is that we really get to trade in the commodity of hope.
Speaker:And I want to give you a quote first that I really liked.
Speaker:This is when the philosopher.
Speaker:A store and Kiki God who, uh, I studied many years ago.
Speaker:Kiki God is a very influential and writes quite beautifully lit
Speaker:a very sad and solitary life.
Speaker:He really did.
Speaker:He was a very.
Speaker:I wouldn't say troubled, but a lonely soul.
Speaker:And, uh, but listen to this, listen to this quite often, it's people
Speaker:that have suffered a fair bit that, uh, have these great insights.
Speaker:It's very simple.
Speaker:Listen to what he says.
Speaker:He says hope.
Speaker:Is passion.
Speaker:For what is possible.
Speaker:Hope his passion for what is possible.
Speaker:I think that's really profound.
Speaker:Hope is passion for what's possible hope.
Speaker:Is an energy, a belief, a future orientation, it's
Speaker:passion for what is possible.
Speaker:And what I want to suggest to you today is whether it's on a zoom call,
Speaker:whether it's face to face, we need to get back in the business of being
Speaker:traders in co in the commodity of hope.
Speaker:Now.
Speaker:This is not humanism, right?
Speaker:So humanism is just, let's all just magically affirm everything and
Speaker:it's all going to be incredible.
Speaker:It's all going to change.
Speaker:We're not talking about that.
Speaker:We are going to be traders in the commodity of hope and that hope comes
Speaker:to us through one particular thing.
Speaker:And that is faith.
Speaker:I've been going on recently about a quote I came across
Speaker:in the Yale Bible dictionary.
Speaker:And it just said faith by its very nature.
Speaker:Confronts fear.
Speaker:Faith by its very nature.
Speaker:Confronts fear.
Speaker:You know, I've been a Christian for many, many years, and I've studied my Catholic
Speaker:faith at a very high academic level, but that was kind of a real bolt from the sky.
Speaker:For me, it was very helpful to realize.
Speaker:That hope.
Speaker:And faith.
Speaker:Confront fear.
Speaker:Whenever FIA grows in our lives or in the lives of our student, what we
Speaker:need is hope in a brighter future.
Speaker:What we need is faith in the God who's going to bring it about.
Speaker:So I began to study.
Speaker:When, when this next round of lockdowns came in, I knew that I had
Speaker:to really guard my own heart and mind.
Speaker:I really needed to get mentally strong.
Speaker:So I started doing a huge amount of Bible study, so I would get up.
Speaker:And then this morning I was up at 3:30 AM.
Speaker:I'm not telling you to do that.
Speaker:It's just that how I operate.
Speaker:And I use this app on my phone.
Speaker:It's I think it's originally from Craig gross shells church in the U S but it's
Speaker:called the you Bible, just Y O U Bible.
Speaker:And it's a phenomenal Bible app and most, I think it's mostly free.
Speaker:It's just brilliant.
Speaker:And you can jump on that and do all these plans and studies on faith.
Speaker:So I am now up every day.
Speaker:I'm just going through plan after plan, after plan, after plan.
Speaker:On faith and hope.
Speaker:And it's teaching me these powerful insights into the mindsets we
Speaker:need to develop in ourselves.
Speaker:And then in our students,
Speaker:And I've obviously been reading a lot in Hebrews 11, which is
Speaker:that great chapter on faith.
Speaker:And there's this beautiful line where it says faith is the
Speaker:assurance of things hoped for.
Speaker:That we have an assurance of what is hoped for.
Speaker:We have an assurance that, you know, That things are going to turn out okay.
Speaker:That things are going to be all right.
Speaker:Now I know some of you listening, going Jonathan.
Speaker:Well, we don't want to put false hope in the lives of our young people.
Speaker:Well, if I had to risk it, if I had to take a 50 50 bet.
Speaker:I would be betting more on just instilling them with hope.
Speaker:Because what I'm learning as a Christian is you can focus on your circumstance.
Speaker:You can focus on what's surrounding you, or you can focus on the promises of faith.
Speaker:You can focus on the promises of God.
Speaker:You can focus on what he says in his book, in his word.
Speaker:And I know.
Speaker:Um, I'm, you know, I'm an Orthodox Catholic.
Speaker:I know some of you listening to me going, Jonathan's gone Baptist.
Speaker:I remember speaking in New York a few years ago and as
Speaker:beautiful invitation to speak and.
Speaker:And the lady that invited me, her husband was a, it was a evangelical
Speaker:Protestant and she was a devout Catholic.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, that a beautiful marriage and, and there was no issue with,
Speaker:with their different faith expressions.
Speaker:And, but he turned up to hear me speak as well.
Speaker:And apparently because I got really fired up and got my Bible out and then.
Speaker:Apparently, she told me later, he turned, everybody whispered too.
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:Jonathan, he's going for the word he's going for the word.
Speaker:And I was, I was passionate about it because I began to
Speaker:realize that it is far better.
Speaker:That I build my reality on his word.
Speaker:Then I build it on my own fear of my own circumstances.
Speaker:So your students and even you yourself at the moment are surrounded by fear.
Speaker:You're surrounded by messages of loss and, and fear of the future and
Speaker:fear of pandemics and fear of this.
Speaker:And I'm not saying that there's no, you.
Speaker:Rational basis to some of it.
Speaker:But I think our mainstream media and our culture in general traffics
Speaker:in fear, because it has a major evolutionary advantage and we are
Speaker:predisposed to be sensitized to fear.
Speaker:So we have to train ourselves.
Speaker:To not be focused on the narrative at that surrounds us.
Speaker:We need to be focused on what God promises us.
Speaker:He promises our salvation.
Speaker:He promises us a hope and a future.
Speaker:And we need as Catholic educators to really step up and begin to offer hope.
Speaker:Even if you don't feel it, you see it's nothing to do with feelings
Speaker:it's to do with a strong ascent of the will to the word of God.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's a strong ascent of the will.
Speaker:You know, Reading this morning, John 14 seven.
Speaker:It's where Jesus talks about.
Speaker:You know, do not be afraid.
Speaker:My peace.
Speaker:I leave with you.
Speaker:My peace.
Speaker:I give you not as the world gives it, but then he has this crucial line with Jesus
Speaker:is, do not let your hearts be troubled.
Speaker:And do not be afraid.
Speaker:He says, do not.
Speaker:Let let, let, let do not permit, do not allow, do not cooperate.
Speaker:Do not agree with fear.
Speaker:He, Jesus makes it really clear that we are not to let it happen.
Speaker:And when I prayed over that this morning, I had a strong sense of
Speaker:like, he's actually telling us that we have to be active in this.
Speaker:He's telling us that we must not let it happen.
Speaker:And he only would have used that phrasiology if, if he knew that we
Speaker:had to be active participants, if we knew that we had to be stepping
Speaker:up and not allowing this stuff to seep into our minds and hearts.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:As you go about your work with students, let's really start to
Speaker:trade in the commodity of hope.
Speaker:So just, even if you're just saying these students, Hey, I
Speaker:know this is tough, but come on.
Speaker:We're going to make the best of this.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:This is going to end.
Speaker:You know, no pandemic lasts forever, no matter how bad it was.
Speaker:Spanish flu 1917, terrible much worse than what we're going through.
Speaker:But eventually it ends people survive.
Speaker:People move on.
Speaker:Some form of normality returns, new opportunities are opened up, hope returns.
Speaker:It does no matter how dark and difficult things are, hope returns.
Speaker:And as Catholic educators, we are uniquely positioned and placed.
Speaker:To really share that message of hope with young people.
Speaker:So friends.
Speaker:I just putting this on your heart today, that if God has made you
Speaker:a Catholic educator, he's called you into this beautiful vocation.
Speaker:Then, please.
Speaker:Become traders in the commodity of hope for young people.
Speaker:They really need it from us at the moment.
Speaker:They really do.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I hope that's an encouragement to you.
Speaker:Get that up on your phone, just make a commitment to just daily Bible study
Speaker:on faith and hope in this dark season.
Speaker:You know, even if it's just 10, 15 minutes a day, whatever it is, begin to
Speaker:fill your heart and mind with scriptures about what God is going to do about
Speaker:what he has promised about who he is.
Speaker:About how we're never abandoned, how we're never left alone, how
Speaker:we must not give into despair.
Speaker:Fill your heart and mind with that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Do me a favor.
Speaker:I want you to go across to try going deeper.com.
Speaker:That's our online training platform for Catholic teachers.
Speaker:You're going to love it is a free trial.
Speaker:I'll put together a free trial, three episodes, no charge.
Speaker:Just go to try going deeper.com.
Speaker:All right, please make sure you've subscribed to the podcast.
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Speaker:Please share this with some Catholic teachers that need some encouragement.
Speaker:God bless everybody.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:And i'll have another message for you very soon
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