Your response to life challenges is the one real problem? Really? Did you read my last post? Well, guess what? My landlords hit really hard once more! In fact, I don’t even know how the heck this is possible. In my last post, I told you about how I met them and how they spoke to me about time … well they also invited me for supper on the following day so we could try the best pizza in Termoli. Let me tell you what happened. 

We were simply chitchatting about life and family and food … obviously, being in Italy, how can we do any differently? The conversation went on to talking about my tattoos because they wanted to understand what it means to me, why I had them done. That’s where everything went downhill … lol … or uphill! Whatever, who the f**** cares at this point! 

Turns out that their son is obsessed with tattoos and lately decided to tattoo his own foot. I could just imagine how bad that could be and smirked … they said, “Yeah, he did it himself! He wrote under his foot, ‘Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.’ ” 

The Consequences Are Often In Your Response.

OUCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHH! That really hit home! I looked it up to make sure I remembered correctly, I found it to be a quote by Charles R. Swindoll. It suddenly reminded me of one of my encounters with my bishop. I told him exactly that … well more or less. I was more of a 20–80 ratio. Obviously in life there are objective trials, but there is also a great share of subjective response to it!

Being an over-sensitive guy and believing in justice and truth, I could hardly tolerate anything that stood in the way of these values! When it came to personal injustice, it blew things out of proportion and my reactions were always quite negative. 

To this day, I can’t even tell you of how many situations in which I lost control because of my way of reacting. How many projects did I drop because of insults or negative criticism! Hurt always took over my enthusiasm and I’d easily abandon amazing projects just for the sake of not getting hurt anymore, or because I was depressed and focusing on the negative. 

One negative comment could easily out-throw 100 positive ones. Isn’t that silly? Isn’t that sadly absurd? Unfortunately, it’s more dramatic than you can even think, because it has to do with self-acceptance, self-love and confidence. 

Although I often have the temptation to fall into regrets and sadness for past events, I try to focus more on the positive road ahead and on how I’ve grown through all of these challenges. I notice how I’ve changed when I positively surprise myself with my own reactions. 

Response to Negative Attacks.

As an example, let me tell you about when I published my posts about my gayness … let’s call it like that! Sounds even more gay … haha! If you did not read these posts, I invite to do so (click here).

I’ve received so many beautiful testimonies in private. These encourage me to continue, in faith to do what I do. Many came from fellow priests, Christians, friends and even family. Each of them, came as a wonderful surprise. 

But hey, I also received so many negative messages! Some trying to discredit my experiences by calling them a bunch of lies, saying I was disgusting that I’d go to hell, that I was a lost soul, that I was evil, etc., etc. 

Do you know what I did? I blocked those losers! I still love them as a Christian … but I do not need Catholic Talibans amongst my readers. Yes, they are losers for being so uninformed … quoting a translated bible that does not even stay faithful to the original Greek and Aramaic texts by using a word that did not even exist, that is the word “homosexual”! 

Let me just do a quick “a parte” right here. The word homosexual first appeared in modern Bibles in 1949. It did not appear before that! The Greek word is “arsenokoitai” which means molesters and related to an old practice of sleeping with young boys. So the translation is not homosexual, because gay men are not pedophiles. Pedophilia is a mental illness. Read more about it by doing some research.

Let’s get back to the goal of this post. I blocked my detractors! I did… I happily blocked them! Why? Because it is useless to try to convince them of something different … theses people often have their dark spaces and, although many are very intelligent, they lack the one necessary wisdom: adulthood in faith! Yes, that maturity that allows you to step out of fear and enter into the freedom of the children of God. 

Evaluate Your Response to Avoid Future Mistakes.

So yes, it is important to take a step back, look at our life, the past events, etc., and evaluate our reactions. We can then better avoid future mistakes. 

Life will always throw a bunch of challenges at you. Your choice relies on seeing them either as challenges (which is positive) or trials (which is negative). Falling into the mentality of trial will often bring you back to a victim mentality and soon enough, you will fall into sadness and depression. Seeing things as challenges will make you bounce back and fight like a winner.

It all comes to that famous saying: “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger!” The temptation to hide and to fall into victimhood is always there… I think it will always be … but my decision to bounce back and fight back is only getting stronger. 

Years ago, I’d surprise myself looking at UFC videos. Georges Saint-Pierre was my favourite and I probably only watched it because of him… It was violent, triggered worries from time to time for these poor badly beaten souls … but I loved those bouncing back stories. I mean, those times when all odds were against the fighter, but he bounced back and won the fight. 

I truly believe that if we all focus on the positiveness of our answers, we can build a better world, a better Church, a better environment for future generations. A lot comes from within; it has a lot do to with our mindset. 

So let’s train together to be ready for life’s challenges. Let’s join forces in bringing forth justice, peace, and truth. 

OK … wow … look at what came out of a simple tattoo? I’m sure that if we’d all listen to life’s messages, and to those little moments in which God sort of winks at us, we’d be able to write many more posts. 

Hey, before I go, did you subscribe to my blog? Come on… Do it! No spam, just many more posts to read!