That Man Is You...

Late last summer, I had a minor revelation. I realized that though I have a wonderful wife and 3 sweet little girls, I was really lacking a certain kind of person in my life. I needed some good men to challenge me. It's not that I don't know good men (my Dad, my brothers, my brothers-in-law, etc. are all very good guys) or that I lack friends, but I was wanting for the kind of friend (or group of friends) who would challenge me and help me to grow. I needed the kind of friend I could talk to more than once every six weeks or six months. This was what I was lacking. I wished that there was some group who met in the mornings (so that I wouldn't have to sacrifice family time) who wanted to grow in their faith and encourage one another. It all added up to a very specific need. It was something I had in college (except instead of mornings it was late nights), but I had been lacking this since then.

I expressed my concerns to my wife one day and she thought this would be perfect for me, if only I could find it. It's not like I was asking for something incredibly specific - oh wait, that is exactly what it is like. I needed men with a strong faith who would get up early in the morning and wanted to grow in their faith and be better husbands, fathers, etc.

God must have been eavesdropping on that conversation, because the next weekend at Mass, a man got up at the end of Mass to make an announcement. At the beginning of September, there was a group starting up that would be going through a program called "That Man Is You". The mission of the program is "becoming a man after God's own heart". They would be meeting at 5:00 AM each Friday. While he was announcing this, my wife looked at me and indicated that this is exactly what I was looking for. I was so dumbstruck, that I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

After Mass I signed up for the program and waited the three weeks until the first meeting.

Each week we begin with breakfast while watching a video presentation. Then we break into small groups. In the first semester, the turnout was so huge, that they ended up breaking the groups up even more from 8 groups to 12 (each of which has at least 10 people - some up to 12). We had a great group with lots of guys who would inspire discussion of things that guys deal with on a week to week basis. I met a lot of good guys there, a few of which I now consider good friends. At semester, we reorganized the groups. I'm with all new guys, but they are very friendly and we have a lot of good discussions. It never ceases to amaze me how many guys are willing to get out of bed before 5 AM (most before 4:30) and go to these meetings. Each week we end just in time to hurry across the hall for the 6:30 Mass.

All this being said, I have a few things that we have talked about at our meetings that I wanted to blog about so I am going to try to do that during Lent. So with all that said, look for a few posts from me this Lent. I'll try to keep them insightful. But now, I'm back to my mission...