Jack's Story

I am blessed, as a certified lay minister, to serve on a volunteer basis in a number of different capacities for my church: director of the Adult Spiritual Education, chair of the Finance Committee, assistant to the Senior Pastor, worship liturgist, and worship lay preacher.

My faith journey has been especially impacted by my Walk to Emmaus in November 1998, which literally changed by life. My favorite prayer, no surprise, is the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a transformative spiritual experience when he felt his heart “strangely warmed” which convinced him that God truly loved him and was giving him the grace to lead a holy life.  When I went on my Walk to Emmaus, I was an active alcoholic and on that weekend I received and accepted the grace to get into AA and now have been sober, one day at a time, for 26 years and am trying to lead a holy spiritual life.

I want to share a few words about this concept of “holiness’ which might be useful to users of this website.

There are two important parts of holiness. These are personal holiness and social holiness. Both parts are equally important. Personal holiness deals with such things as keeping the commandments and not sinning. However personal holiness goes far beyond just keeping these commandments. True personal holiness is living your life in such a way that it models the love of Jesus to all. We seek this not simply because God will “get us” is we do not, but because God’s love has already “gotten us.”

Social holiness is living your life in such a way that it makes a difference in our world. Disciples of Jesus are mandated to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and hurting, visit the prisoners and treat the outcasts the weak and those who live on the margin of society with respect and dignity. When we study the gospel, we find that Jesus taught more about these things than anything else.

So, what is holiness? Holiness is living a life that shows Jesus Christ to the world, both in what we do personally and how we treat others socially as well. To be holy as God is holy can easily be dismissed as an unattainable pipedream, or it can be a real challenge for us to strive to attain. Let us work together, through this “Mary Lives” ministry, to strive for true holiness in our daily lives.