Episode 107 - Lord, what are we going to do today? with Deacon Art: Part Two

This is the second half of my conversation with Deacon Art. 

Deacon Art says this prayer daily, "Lord, what are we going to do today?" It is such a simple prayer, but it changes everything. I am joined by Deacon Arthur Miller as we unpack this prayer and how allowing the Lord to guide us through each day can make all the difference. This episode is Part Two.

Deacon Art is a Deacon at St Mary's church in Simsbury, Connecticut. He is an author, preacher, activist, and retired businessman. He also presents the daily video reflections on the USCCB daily readings website for Tuesdays. (That's where I found him). I am honored to have him join me on this episode of Catholic Money Talk. 

Transcript

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Paul, Welcome to Catholic money talk, where we talk about all things money and finance, and we try to do it through a lens of being Catholic, where our ultimate goal is to one day be in Heaven with the Lord. I am your host. Paul Scarfone, thank you for being here today. Paul, Steve, welcome back to Catholic money talk. Today we continue our conversation with Deacon. Arthur Miller, I had a conversation with Deacon art it spanned the timeframe of what would be two episodes. So I split it in half. Last week we had part one of Lord, what are we going to do today? And today we finish with the second part of Lord, what are we going to do today? But let's say a prayer before we listen to the second half in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for all the ways that you inspire us, that you send us your Holy Spirit so that we can see with your eyes, so we can care for those around us, and we can do Your will, Lord, we find peace when we are in your will. So Lord, we prayerfully ask you, Lord, what are we going to do today? Inspire us with this answer. We ask this all in Jesus name, amen, in name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So here is part two, the continuation of my conversation with Deacon art, talking about looking at everyone you know, looking at everything through spiritual lens, seeing Christ in everybody. I mean, as you were saying that, I'm also thinking, if you walk around like that, you're never going to be disappointed if you're just seeing Christ everywhere. Yes, like that, that's a good day, absolutely now, and it doesn't mean that people are going to act like Christ, but everybody has Christ in them, correct? And if they can't see it, I can still see it, you know, it's I maybe don't. I don't necessarily interact with every human being, but it makes me to begin loving every human being, no matter how they respond to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mentioned this before we started recording, but that, that little note on the the church where you serve, on their webpage with you, the 11th command, if God were to give us an 11th commandment, yes, Thou shalt not be a bystander. Thou shalt not be a bystander. Yeah, and saying, Lord, what are we going to do today? And just having those spiritual eyes, yeah, it you know, Paul, this has been I've just really enjoyed this. I don't know how long this program is, but this has given me some additional energy. Are I often talk about church as being the locker room, and it's the place that we go to to read the playbook. You know, the Bible, where our coach, the priest, explains the place to us during his homily, and then he nourishes us, you know, like, I don't know if your kids ever played soccer, but you know, the moms use those orange slices Well, ours is a little bit more, a lot more nutritious, but it's to nourish our spirits. And then we even have some water boys and water girls. You know, those altar servers? You know, deacons are the assistant coaches. We have ushers, we have a pep squad, and we also have the team, the team of the people, yeah, and not everybody's a quarterback, right? Because everybody has a different gift, and everyone's gift is important, and we need to know who our teammates are. That's why it's called a community, and it's called a team, but the the game is not played in the locker room. No, we take that nourishment, those lessons, the lessons from the playbook, understanding who our community is, understanding, you know what the rules are, understanding, you know, all of the game, and then we go out and play the game based on what we learned in church. And that's how we can see through spiritual lens what the world is like, because that's the lens we need. But of course, we get all beat up during the week of the game, so we got to come back next Sunday because there's going to be another locker room meeting. Yes, and sometimes we see our teammates out there, and we have to introduce ourselves, even if they play for a different team, you know, they might be a Protestant, you know, we still playing against the same opponent. Yeah, yeah. That's beautiful. I love that analogy. Yeah, I'll tell you. I can't take credit for it. Paul, I was doing a mission for some high school kids. The Holy Spirit gave it to me right there, right in the middle of my reflection. Wow, that's pretty good. And I just started running with it every now and then. What if I get, if I get a good line or a good idea, I know it wasn't mine. I'm very grateful to be used by the Lord whenever possible. Yeah, yeah, that's wonderful, yeah. And I think, you know, I think that's the biggest thing, right? I mean, you talk about being an activist for every human life. And, you know, sometimes I think, as, you know, Catholics, as Christians, as whoever, we don't want to go in the game. We want to be on the bench or the injured reserve list. And we think, you know, and to pull in some of like the, you know, just the society that we live in. We think the church will do that, or the government will legislate it, or or something, and, and we're thinking, well, I voted for that person, or I gave my money to church. And it's, you know, I'm no, I'm glad you brought that up, because it's not that the government isn't supposed to do their part. It's not the the church, you know, the church body is not supposed to do that, but all of those things are made up of you and I, that's right. And so it is my responsibility, you know, to do, you know the things that that I'm supposed to do? You know, we often look. Remember that scriptural passage where the the maids, 1020, maids, went out waiting for the for the oil, yeah, with the oil, and the the master or the the groom was coming, and 10 who didn't have oil, went to the tenant did and said, Can I have some of yours? And they said, No. Well, what that oil is, Paul, are our works? The things we have done, each of us are going to be have to look at what we have done, not with the entire government, all of it is done. Not with our churches, done what have we done so you cannot give your oil or your your works to someone else. They're your works. You did it. Yeah. And so I've mentioned that to folks before, you know, because they're often, there's a husband and wife, and that, more often than not, the wife does all the work, and the husband stays at home and says, Well, you know, she's going to heaven. She's doing the work for both of us to go to heaven. I said, No, Brother, don't work like that. Yeah, that's right, brother, you can't get her oil. You got to get your own oil. That's right. And to your point, if the wife's a quarterback, that doesn't mean the husband's a quarterback Exactly. He can be a he could be an end. You could be anything. You could be a quarterback, whatever you're exactly, right? But in the problem is it's not that people don't want to be on the team that you know, they're not even in the stands, watching, watching from the sideline. They don't go to the game, yeah, and and, and they don't even know what they're supposed to do, because they also never walk into the locker room, exactly, right, you know? Yeah. So they don't know the rules, they don't know how to play, and they're just lost, and the opponent wins. Because, see, the opponent's going to always be the opponent. So you go out there, facing the opponent, opponent, with teammates, knowing how, the how to, what to do and what the knowing the playbook. Or you go out there alone, because, brother, you going out there. Yeah, the game doesn't stop for anybody. No. And I think the other thing too, just as you know, to kind of continues this analogy, you know, if they're not in the locker room, if they don't know the play, the other thing they don't know is they don't know how much they're needed and and it's not that, it's not that God needs them, like he can't do it without them, but he wants them. He made them for this, you know, amen, it's like in the raising of Lazarus, you know when, when Christ got to the cave and he said he want the people to roll away the stone. Yeah, it wasn't that he. It and roll away the stone. He's the one that said, if he had a faith of a mustard seed, you could say that mountain moving, it'll move. He could have moved it, but he didn't want to, because the people have to cooperate with God. Have to be a part of the miracles. We have to be bold and moving people. And when we move the boulders out the way, then they can hear Christ calling him. And that's when Christ said, Lazarus come out. Lazarus came out. What that tells us is even a dead man can do something for himself if he listens to Jesus, but he can't hear Jesus. If we got all these boulders in their way, the boaters are dealt the boaters are anger. The Boaters are said, We got to move it out of the way because they buried in all of that. It takes you and I as a team to move the voters out of the way. And so we can't be bystanders. We have to be there participating in moving voters. Boy, you got me going today? Paul, Yeah, we sure did. And timing wise, don't, don't worry about it when you feel like the spirits ready for a break. Normally, what I do on my episodes, they're usually, most of them are just me, kind of talking about a particular thing, because what I actually do, I didn't even tell you this. So I am a financial coach for people, where I help them figure out what their goals are and then create the behaviors they need to achieve those. And that's where it's key, where it's not the same for everyone, because what God wants me to accomplish is different than what he wants you to accomplish. And so and the other thing I work on is getting husbands and wives to work together, to be of one mind and and work together on their finances. And so I do that. And sometimes when I'm working with a couple and helping someone, I see a pattern of things that are challenged, or maybe I can articulate something right through, the grace of the Holy Spirit, He shines a light on something. I go, Wait, it's this, and I'll make a note of it. And then I, I'll create an episode to talk about that. So some of those look, yeah, those are about maybe 20 minutes long on average. And then every now and then I've, I've had some guests to kind of tackle, just bring another voice in to get another perspective that understands what we're trying to accomplish here. And sometimes those will go 40 minutes, and I may or may not break it up into just two episodes, like I can just kind of cut half of it and put half of it there, but, um, but no, this has been, this has been really, really great. I I feel so blessed being able to talk to you. I mean, you know, it feels like, you know, it was funny. I wrote any that email I wrote to you. I probably wrote it two or three times and delete and stuff and going, he might not even open this thing, you know, and I send it to you, and your response back to me was like, Yes, I said, I boy, I spent a lot of time on this. Like, what was I worried about? Because it's kind of like, what you're saying, if the Lord wants you to do something, it's gonna be, you know, you see it, you jump on it. It was funny. So having you on here, I feel like, you know, you're more of like, I'd say, like a celebrity, because no, but just seeing someone, it's like, I finally get to talk to them. This is awesome. I feel very blessed here. I assure you, I hope I'm not a celebrity, because that certainly isn't my joy, no, but just in my mind, just seeing every day, you know, it's, it's, getting the chance to talk to you. It's great. Yeah, well, it's, it's funny, I'll go, I'll be on an airplane or something, and someone will walk by. Lord, what are we going to do today? So it, yeah, it happens. I those things go around the, around the world and stuff. So it's, it's, believe me, it's, it's, it's a I always give God the glory, amen. And I, I'll tell you this real quick story. People, when I've preached, have often said, you know, Deacon, you're, you're humili is so wonderful. Thank you. You're such a gifted, homeless, and, you know, I've been ordained for a few decades, and I initially said, well, thank you. And I felt and I started feeling good about it, and I started to worry, because I don't ever want to be prideful. So I began to pray and say, Lord, you know I don't want to be prideful, but this really, really feels good when people say that, and God kind of spoke to me the way God speaks to all of us, and kind of said, you know, it's okay. You have a gift. I gave it to you, but don't keep the glory, cuz if you keep the glory, it'll separate us. Just give me the glory, not that I need it, but you. Handle it. That was kind of what came to me. And so whenever anyone says anything, I said, Just give God the glory. Because see if I keep the glory that separates us, but if I give it to him, it draws us together. And when you give Him the glory, and you're receiving a compliment, or, you know, an honoring, yeah, it's a great encouragement. Yes, right? Like, it's good for us to say to people, you did a good job. Oh, absolutely. It's, it's, it's good for us to do that. And you know, my, my little theory on that is, when God created us, and within all of us, there's this longing of affirmation, sure, but, but it'll come to its fullness when we hear, Welcome home, good and faithful servant, absolutely. And then, you know, we have pride in the Lord and not pride in ourselves, yeah, but, but, so when we hear those things on Earth, it like that. I think I feel like that muscle flutters a little bit going, Yeah, we, that's what we want, but from him. So that's what we're working towards, you know? Because it's and it is. It's when we're able to have a sense of gratitude towards other people, when they're using the gifts that God's given them to when they're doing what the Lord has for them to do that day, you know. And we can say thank you, thank you for doing what the Lord had for you to do this day like it, it's going to just, you know, encourage them to keep, to continue to do it, yeah, because it, it begins to make us more community, because we're Yes, you know, it's like you did a good job. I blocked well for the guy, you know, all right, I knocked down someone so that they could get by. And they come up say thank you, and it feels good because they I did it, but I was able to do it because God gave me the gift to do it. Yeah, because we all have our position to play. Yes, he made it. Well, Brother, we bought we've been on for 50. Yeah, we're there. So thank you very much for coming on today. It was a joy to meet you. I hope we're able to stay in touch for sure. Well, you've got my email. I've got your email now I will. I'll post this episode probably in a week or two, and I'll send you a link to it if you wanted to give it a listen. I'll cut out any of the fumbling I might have had. But no, it was that makes it real. Yeah, that's true too. That's true too. So thank you very much. Yeah, I'm so I'm so grateful. I pray that the the Lord blesses the service and the work that you're doing for all of the people that are marginalized and who don't have a voice and who are vulnerable, Lord, just come and bless Deacon art's ministry. Bless his family. Lord all those concerns that he might have, Lord God, just allow him to fully surrender him to you, Lord God, knowing that you have an awesome plan, and that plan ends with all of us. Be in heaven with you, Lord God, just continue to build up great hope within his heart, great trust for you, Lord God, thank you for the witness that he is to so many people. Just bless him. Keep him safe and close to you, Lord, we ask this all in Jesus name, Amen, amen, Holy Spirit, so God bless you as well, my friend. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening. You too, and God bless you, and God bless your listeners, and may they recognize and wake up each morning and say, Lord, what are we gonna do today? Amen. Amen. God bless brother. God bless Bye. You. Paul, thank you for listening to Catholic money talk. I hope you join us again next time, please click Subscribe on your podcast app to get notified of new episodes. God bless you and have a great day. You.