I started the day working on a Habitat Rehab doing demo work with the kids from Space Coast Youthbuild. YouthBuild is a program where low-income, "at-risk" young people ages 16-24 work toward earning their GEDs or high school diplomas, learn job skills and serve their communities by building affordable housing, and make positive lifestyle changes. These kids spend half the week in a classroom and half the week on the construction site. So much is accomplished from this program. A needy family receives affordable, safe housing and the kids who work on it receive an education, construction skills, work ethic, and self esteem under the guidance of a mentor who encourages them along the way. Good stuff.
For lunch, we went to the local Lowe's, which was having a free cookout as part of their Contractor Appreciation day. I grabbed a few burgers and sat down at the table to eat. I already had a mouthful of food, when I remembered to say grace. I made the sign of the cross and did so. Another young man sat down at the seat across from me, mentioned that he saw me say the blessing, and mentioned that he too was a Christian. We proceeded to discuss work, Christianity, and life over the course of the meal. This got me to thinking about how we as Christians seem to live a dual life. On Sundays, specifically during our respective church services, we become holy super heroes, but during the rest of the week we put on our secret identities as mild-mannered, secular citizens. Somewhere along the way we bought into this nonsense that our faith is a private, personal thing that is only to be lived and practiced internally or in certain religion-approved zones (as if religion was like cigarette smoke). Being a Christian isn't a small part of one's life...IT IS LIFE.
Anyways, after doing some more interior framing work on another habitat house in the area, I went out for a beer with the Habitat site supervisor. Thus began a six hour marathon conversation covering Christianity, Catholicism, the abortion issue, universal healthcare, the death penalty, the flawed political system, the flawed school system, the flawed justice system and a little bit of sports. I'm usually very hesitant to ever get into these types of talks, because it usually turns into a heated no-win debate. In this instance, however, it was a very constructive, open two-way discourse. It's very refreshing to discuss all these topics with someone who is open-minded enough to hear and consider a viewpoint that might differ slightly from theirs. While we agreed for the most part on all the topics, I was able to address some of the confusion and misconceptions held about the Catholic church and her stand on many hot issues. What an epic conversation! What a full day!
It's amazing to see God work in your life. He satisfied my desire to discuss my faith with someone and at the same time showed me how I need to develop a fuller and richer understanding of my faith so that I can explain it and share it in a more perfect way.
We held the dedication ceremony this past Saturday for the second Habitat house I worked on. This house is just three streets from the first build. Habitat also owns the lot right next to this one and is just waiting on a sponsor to break ground. Amazing stuff to see first hand God's work being done.
You put in a hard day's work, but you go home feeling a sense of real accomplishment. I've met a lot of great people and learned a set of construction skills that'll come in handy when I own my own home. I've used power saws, drills, a chainsaw, and got to do some plumbing and electrical work, too.