The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Embracing Fruitful Inconveniences

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Small acts of kindness can have a profound impact on others. Jeff reflects on the power of small acts of kindness in the Body of Christ. He emphasizes how our willingness to endure small inconveniences can make a significant difference and help us become more like Jesus. Snippet from the Show Inconveniences can lead to fruitful outcomes for both the giver and the receiver. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 421, fruitful inconveniences. Thank you for joining me, my friend. Good to be with you. Well, three days ago, my mother's funeral took place. and a lot of wonderful things took place during the funeral. And I'm going to share a couple that really had an impact on me.

They really did. And I just have to give kudos to the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church just does it right. You know, in accompanying people who are on their last days through care, hospice care, the last rights, the apostolic, pardon, all of it is not only a blessing for the person who is dying, but is a blessing for the people around them. They're family members, husbands, wives, and children, siblings.

It's just such a blessing to know that the church takes such care in ushering in our loved ones into paradise. And I love it. And just a big thanks to the Catholic Church for that. Some things happened during the funeral that really were a blessing to me. I'll share a couple of them with you. But in the broader scope of today's show, I want to talk about faithful inconveniences.

and that is the times where maybe we feel a little inconvenience, but we do something for somebody and it ends up with it being fruitful. And it turns out to be quite a blessing to somebody else's life that we endured a little bit of inconvenience and went out of our way to love them and care for them and to let them know that they were cared for themselves. And maybe you've experienced something like that. Maybe somebody went out of their way to do something particularly nice to you,

good deed or in the Jewish community a mitzvah, right, a good deed they did to you. And it had an impact. Oh, it might have been something small, but the impact was big. See, what you do for people and the impact that results is not necessarily equal. You can do something small for someone, but it was something that was beautiful and small, but it had a big impact on their heart. I remember a time when, oh, by the way, I'll tell you about that in a moment, but if you want show notes, All you got to do is text my name, Jeff Kavins, and text it to the number 3-3-7-7. We'll give you the show notes, okay? So a number of years ago, I was visiting someone at a hospital, and I was having a very busy day,

a day that was really rough, I think, as I remember. And I was getting ready to go up to the second or third floor to visit, and the elevator door went open, and there was a young lady in there. They called them candy stripes, candy stripers back then. These were volunteers at hospitals that were there to just do good and do good deeds and accompany people and be kind. Well, the door opened up, and there was one of these young ladies, and she smiled at me. And her smile, I don't know her name. I never met her after that, even though I went looking for because her smile just brought joy to my heart on a busy day.

I wanted to tell her, hey, your smile did something to me. And it really filled me with joy, Anatei, that I was struggling. And I actually went looking on a couple other floors. I could not find her. Who knows? Maybe I was entertaining, as it says in Hebrews, I was entertaining angels unaware. But she had a big impact on me. And sometimes when we do these little things, they do have a big impact on people.

And I'm going to give you a couple of examples here, okay? During the funeral, there was a lady that was sitting out in the foyer, and I don't recall seeing her ever before. And I walked up to her and shook her hand and said, thank you for coming here. And how did you hear about the funeral? And I'm trying to figure out what is our relationship here. And she said, you've changed my life with your podcasts.

Not only the weekly, but the daily and the Bible timeline, all of it. When I found out that your mother had passed away, I wanted to come and honor her. And I thought, wow, wow, that really hit me. It was like, you want to honor my mother. Yeah, because you had an impact on my life. I want to honor her. I came to honor your mother. And that really touched me, you know, and I walked away.

She didn't know how deep it touched me at that point. I don't think. but I got to thinking about it later in that she woke up that day. She ordered her morning accordingly, knowing she was going to come. She might have changed something on her calendar. She might have had somebody pick up the kids or whatever, but she made it to the funeral on time, and she wasn't going to say a thing.

She just came to sit there and honor my mother. And it was, I don't know if I would have even known had I not gone up to her and spoke to her. But her whole day was reconfigured just to honor my mother. And that thing right there, that thing that she did, I say that little thing to her, it might have been their entire day being reconfigured. It had a big impact on me. You say, well, that's not so hard to just go to a funeral and tell someone that I am honoring your mother. You don't know what kind of impact that will have.

And that's what I'm talking about here is fruitful inconveniences. It certainly was inconvenient for her to say. some degree, but she did it, and it was fruitful. And there were several, and they said the same thing. I just wanted to come and honor your mother because of what I have received through you via her. And I thought, what a beautiful thing. And it gave me the idea of, man, I'm going to start doing that myself. I'm going to start going to some of these funerals I hear about in the mass, you know, during mass, they have the announcements. And a funeral will be said for Helen Johnson today, for Brad Anderson today, whatever the names are, making those.

up. But you have an opportunity as a member of the body of Christ to go and to honor that person and get to know the loved ones. And if you do know that person, you can thank the family for their father or their mother. I also was greeting my mother's extended family and her sisters and brother from Iowa. And all of a sudden I looked up and there was Jonathan Strait, the CEO of Ascension, who flew in from Philadelphia. He's walking towards me. I looked at him. I thought, wow, thank you. And I just said, I'm speechless. Thank you. And he goes, sure. Of course, I'd be here. And I thought, wow. All he did was walk in. It seems like a small thing. But he had to get a plane ticket. He had to fly. He had to sit on that airplane. He had to eat peanuts. He ended up coming there. I'm assuming he got a hotel. And he wanted to come and honor my mother. And then about three minutes later, Alex Jones from Hallow walks in. And I'm like, wow. These seemingly small things were fruitful inconveniences that made a big impact on me. It made a big impact on others that were there that people would fly in or that a few ladies would say I reorganized my

day because I just wanted to honor your mother. Fruitful inconveniences. Then I got to thinking, how can I do that? How could I have an impact on people in a small way, what seems like an inconvenience, how can I have a fruitful impact on people by being kind or going out of my way a bit to serve them, to love them, to honor something in their family, whether it be a person or an event or whatever it might be. I'd love to hear from you. You know, my email is the Jeff Caven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. I would like to hear from you. Have you ever had anything like that? Where you are heavily impacted. by something that somebody did.

You know, the scriptures tell us to not despise small beginnings. And there is a tendency to despise small beginnings, and that is that things that seem small are not given as much attention, as much credence, and as much credit. And these small things oftentimes end up in big things. It's similar to a big tree or a bush or something. It starts with a seed, and then it grows into something like the mustard. seed. It grows into something significant. That's what Jesus uses in the gospel is the imagery of the

mustard seed, which is actually a very small seed. In fact, if it's sitting on your wooden desk, you're going to have a really hard time finding it. It's so small, but it grows into quite a, it grows into a tree, and the birds can make their nests in it. So I want to talk about another thing that hit me a while ago that really blessed me, where I was actually asked to do something small and I didn't want to at first, but I did, and it ended up blessing me. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, my name is Father Josh Johnson. I want to invite you to join me this lent for set free.

A series of daily video reflections based on my new book, The Pocket Guide to Overcoming the Seven Deadly Sins. Starting March 5th in the Ascension app, we're focused on getting to the roots of the sins we struggle with in our day-to-day lives, all of which stem from the seven deadly sins of wrath, sloth, gluttony, lust, greed, envy, and pride. In the gospel, Jesus says, when you pray. But he also says, when you fast.

Most people know that Catholics fast during Lent, but what they may not know is that fasting is a powerful tool to defeat sin. As we learn more and more about each one of the seven deadly sins, we'll explore small fast and practical ways to grow in the opposite virtues so that we can root out and eliminate each one at its source. You can learn more.

and download the free Lent action plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash father Josh Lent to join, download, and subscribe to the Ascension app today. Welcome back talking today about fruitful inconveniences and going over what we've already talked about. I was mentioning before the break there about the funeral from my mother and this last Tuesday. And the things that people did that were probably inconvenient for them had a huge impact on me and gave me ideas on how to love other people and how to respect and honor other people. And so that gift just keeps on giving, doesn't it, right? Well, I also remember a while

ago, you know, I bought tickets to the James Taylor concert in the Twin Cities. I was going to take MLA to that. And I tried to get the best seats that I possibly could. There comes a point where I'm not going to pay any more to get three rows closer, but I thought I got some pretty good seats. And so upon arriving, I walked down to where the seats were around the 12th, 13, 14th row, something like that. Then when I got down to that row, I realized that my seat, I forgot, was right in the middle, like seat 12, row 12, seat 12, put me right smack in the middle and there's my seats are open, but all the people are sitting in that row. So I have a choice, right? I have a choice

there. One, I can ask everyone to stand while I tiptoed in front of them with my drink in my left hand and my popcorn precariously perched in my right hand, and both hands are raised above everyone's head. Or I can ask everyone to move toward the center as I'm a little late and I'd like to sit on the aisle. Well, since the tickets were purchased, they weren't going to, they weren't going to do that. We had to sit in our seats. So I had to go to, number one there. I had to go to the first option. And that is I had to tiptoe through the crowd and ask everyone to stand up. Don't you hate that when you have to do that? And if you're on the receiving innovate, think, oh, brother, is this one of those guys that's going to get up

and buy something or use the restroom every five, ten minutes? Well, this doesn't happen at church. At church, you can sit anywhere you want, unless there's this tradition. that old Farmer Jones sits on that particular pew every week, and nobody's going to ever dare sit where old Farmer Jones sits. But let's face it, shall we? Generally speaking, we like to sit on the aisle. I don't like to sit in the middle. Why?

Don't know. But sometimes you get rude ushers. I say rude, I'm doing the quote marks right now, air quotes. You get the rude ushers who they will come down to your aisle and you, in your preparation for mass, decided to get there early to secure that aisle seat because it's so valuable. I mean, if you need to get up and use the restroom, it's a clear shot. Just get up, leave, you're not going to bother anyone.

You've got some leg room. No one's going to be pushing your shoulder against you. Oh, it's going to be nice, right? Everybody wants an aisle seat. Again, why? I don't know. But the usher will come down and he'll look at you and say, could you please move in?

Could you just scoot in? Those words I don't want to hear. Could you scoot in for these people who came seven minutes late and did not prepare? You might as well say skedaddle. Even slide sounds better, but scoot reminds me of a dance. I have a question at the end of the show for ushers. It's a question. Now, I got to the church early.

And that person that I'm going to have to scoot for came in late. And you, Mr. Usher, asked me to move from this comfortable place of pride. If he wants it, he can come early. Now, you know I'm being a little facetious, a little facetious. But would Jesus move in, this is a question, would Jesus move in if an usher asked him to? Would he do it with a good attitude? Yes, and yes. Would you move in if the usher asked you to?

And would you have a good attitude? Yes, no. So if the pastor asks everyone to scoot to the middle for the late people and no one shows up, can you deskoot? Or assume your previous pole position? What about the poor guy that you scooted toward? Is he or she uncomfortable now that you are so close? Do they look at you like, give space for the Holy Spirit, sir? When we do scoot down, we typically leave a safe seat between us and the other person.

Now, I'm with all of you, but hey, I need my space. So space speaks a bit about our sense of autonomy. We move away from people. Remember in the Garden of Eden when sin entered in, we created space between ourselves and God and between one another. is it wrong to place your keys, iPhone, or wallet, or brochure from the lobby on the entire sixth row of seats in case your friends show up? Well, anyway, on this particular Sunday, a mother of three little ones, I'm talking about three years old, two years old, and a baby in a baby carrier. And I was in my poll position. I was on right.

there in the pride of place on the aisle, and church started. So everybody after that is de facto late. And so all of a sudden, I was aware of this lady on my left standing there with these children and one in her arms in this baby seat. And she said to me, excuse me, may we join you? It blew my mind. She didn't say scoot. She didn't say, can you nudge down a little bit? Could you scoot over a little bit? She didn't say anything like that. She said, may we join you? I was frozen. I was like, what do I say? Yeah, you can join me, but only on my right. Yeah, you can join me if you don't touch me. Yeah, you can join me if your children will not make noise. She said it so lovingly, so innocently, may we join you. Yes, I said, you can join me.

You can join me as we celebrate the greatest gift in the world. You see, the mass is all about, I'm loved. I hear God in His Word. I eat the body and the blood of Christ. My sins are forgiven. I get to entrust myself to the Lord in the creed. I receive peace. Why, yes, yes, you may join me in my family.

She could have said, can you scoot in? Well, I don't know if Scoot is on the menu today, ma'am. You are late, and I believe there's a nursery. But she said, may we join you, the body of Christ? Why, yes, you may join me. You know, Luke chapter 14 and verses 7 through 11 says, now he told a parable to those who were invited when he marked how they chose the places of honor,

saying to them, when you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, which, by the way, the mass is, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, give place to this man. And then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place, aka scooting in. but when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place. That's in the middle, I guess. So that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, go up higher,

and then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. My guess is that this is the usher's favorite verse. Just a thought, you know, when they wear these little name tags that claim that are an Usher, Bob Johnson Usher underneath it, they are just right, Luke 14, 7 through 11. It's called the Scoot Passage. So let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

And Paul said something along these lines. I'll put these in the show notes for you. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility. Count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. Wow. Jesus was asked, teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law?

He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind, and this is the great in First Commandment, and a second is like it. you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Note takers, that's Matthew 22, 36, through 40. Paul told the Romans, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, unless, of course, you've got the aisle seat. He said to the Philippians in chapter two, verse three, do nothing from rivalry or

conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than your cells. So, let me tell you what happened in that mass that might just fill out this story and give you an idea of the impact it had on me. When she was sitting to my left, which means she's got the aisle, he's got the aisle and she came late. She's got the aisle seat and two of her children are sitting next to her and then she has the baby in her arms. she puts the baby in the little baby carrier and on the floor between us on the floor and I looked at her I got up to go to communion but she didn't get up and I asked are you going to go to communion and she said no not right now I have I have to watch the baby and I said I'll watch the baby I'll sit here with my wife will watch the baby you can go with your kids

you go up to communion and so while I watched her baby, she went up to communion. And she came back and said, thank you. Now, a word to ushers, you can make a difference to people, particularly visitors. I would suggest not saying, could you move in? I would suggest asking, could this family join you in the holy sacrifice of the mass where you will be loved and you'll hear God, you'll eat his body, drink his blood, your sins are forgiven, you get to entrust yourself to the Lord in the creed and you receive peace. Pastors, educate your people about Pew courtesy because currently your Pew policy may stink. C.S. Lewis reminds us, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. It is

Immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit immortal horrors of everlasting splendors. So this Sunday, humble yourself and look forward to sitting with an immortal. And remember, fruitful inconveniences mean a lot in the person that you are blessing. What was important in that situation was not my sitting in the pole. position on the aisle because I came early. What was important was that a mother brought her three children to Mass, and I don't want to be a burden to them. I want to be a blessing to them. And so, yes, she joined us. She joined our family. And it was a mass that I'll never forget.

So let's close in prayer today. Again, if you do want the show notes, I've got these scriptures for you, I'll include them. All you got to do is text my name, 3377. Is the number to text to and we'll get those to you. I do hope you're having a good week and remember this week. Look for the opportunities to be inconvenienced because you know what? It just might be fruitful in someone's life, including yours. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God bless you. I love you. I look forward to talking to you next week.