The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Still on the Bunny Hill of Catholicism?

Episode Date: November 10, 2017

Are you on the spiritual “bunny hill?” Have you practiced your faith enough to be able to handle harder challenges, or are you still operating in the faith of your childhood? In this episode, Jeff encourages you to commit to your faith in a serious way and mature in it every day.

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Episode 40, still on the Bunny Hill of Catholicism? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show.

Welcome to the show. Good to have you back again as we discuss every week. elements of being a modern-day disciple, suggestions, and some insights on how we can better serve the Lord, including myself. And oftentimes during the show, I'm actually talking to myself, and I know that you can probably benefit as well. Appreciate all of your feedback from the previous shows. Really helpful, really encouraging. And over the last couple of shows, We've got a lot of feedback. One, the last show was talking to God out loud.

Wow, I heard all kinds of people saying that it has made a big difference in their life. Many people said, I actually do this. I talk to God out loud. And that was episode 39. A big benefit in my life has been really talking to God out loud. And acting as though he really is there rather than just some kind of make-believe God in my head that I talk to with my own thoughts. I actually do carry on a conversation.

The show before that, redeeming the time, you waste on TV news. Boy, we got a lot of feedback there. I was having a lot of fun with really trading in Hannity for reading the book of First Corinthians or trading in Allison Cooper, or Anderson Cooper, I'm going to have Alice Cooper, trade him in too. But I'm trading in Anderson Cooper, an hour of that, for three songs of songs, Song of Solomon. And we just had a lot of fun with that, and I really appreciate your feedback. Today we're going to be talking about our own spiritual growth.

And this is something that is really important and something that we need to bring up, and something that many times just goes unaddressed. And that is, are you making spiritual progress in your life? Are you growing in Christ? Are you growing in terms of your own vices that you struggle with and your own virtue, your virtue that you want to strengthen? Are we really growing? Those are the things that we want to ask ourselves today.

Are you still on the bunny hill of Catholicism? Now, for you that did not grow up in Minnesota, Colorado, or up in Canada by Banff or some of the other northeastern states, the bunny hill is a phrase that really is synonymous with beginning. It's the beginning stages of learning how to downhill ski. Now, I grew up in Minnesota, and I can remember as a young man, just a young boy actually, learning to ski downhill, but we also did cross-country skiing in the Twin Cities. And I remember very clearly the first day that I was introduced to downhill skiing.

My parents dropped me off at a place called Highland Hills in Bloomington, Minnesota. It was a pretty good-sized hill, certainly for a 9-10, 11-year-old. And we paid our $4 for our ski lift, and we put that sticker on our coat, and wow, we really admired all those older kids who had what looked like hundreds of lift, you know, stickers on their coat and then we were out there with one or two and we were obviously novices. Well, we ask once we rent our equipment, you know, our boots and our poles and our skis, where do we start? Where do we start? And everybody knows where you start. You start on the bunny hill. The bunny hill. The bunny hill was really another word for you're just beginning.

There's not much incline here. And you can experiment with your V. movement with your skis going down the hill a little bit and if you fall it's not that big of a deal you know and and it's safe it is predictable it is easy and there is special surveillance there they have patrol you know ski patrols who are watching the the kids on the bunny hill during that time and and i have fond memories of those beginning moments but i always looked over to the right to the intermediate hill and thought, I'd really like to go down that hill. It's a little bit more steep, a little bit more challenging, and maybe someday I'll be able to go over there. Well, as my parents dropped me off week after week in the winter in Minnesota, and I conquered the bunny

hill, I ended up at the intermediate hill. And then after a couple of weeks at the intermediate hill, I went over to the advanced hill. And then I started going to other ski areas. and they had things like double diamond, you know, the really difficult hill. And I was starting to slalom down a difficult hill. And I used to look over there at the bunny hill because every, you know, ski resort has the bunny hill and thinking, wow, glad I'm not there anymore. That wouldn't be that exciting. Well, that's the, that's kind of the framework of this whole show that I'm talking about today.

In terms of your own spiritual growth, are you still on the bunny hill? are you still on the bunny hill now let me just make this this this one statement and that is if you're just beginning right now i'm not talking to you you can listen to this and you can grow from it and kind of put it in in your hat you know a feather in your hat for the future put it in your back pocket think about it later but for those who have been at this for five 10 15 20 25 years in walking as a disciple walking as a Catholic, walking as a Christian, my question would be, are you still on the bunny hill? Or have you advanced to the double diamond hill in your life? Now, when I was a kid growing

up in Bloomington, Minnesota, it was just my sister, myself and two sisters. I had a sister that was about a year and a half, about a year and a half younger than me, Jane. And then my sister, Leslie, was about 10 years younger than myself. And we had this house. And we had this house. in Bloomington, Minnesota, and in the basement, you could go underneath the stairs, and it was still exposed as far as the two-by-fours underneath the stairs. And we used to do something, which you probably have done to some degree yourself, we would measure ourselves, how tall we were, and we would measure you are 48 inches, you are 50 inches, whatever it might be, and then you would put the date on that wall,

and the two-by-four next to it. And then next year, your birthday, which mine's November 8th, is that you would be really excited to go back and see, have I grown any? Am I taller? And maybe I'm an inch taller. Maybe I'm an inch and a half taller. Two inches taller.

How much did I grow in the last year? And it was fun to see how much we had grown. You know? But we really looked forward to that. But what would have happened if I would have between 9 and 10 years old noticed that between 9 and 10 I actually didn't grow, but I shrunk.

I went from 48 inches to 45 inches. Now, my parents would have rushed me to the doctor right away. What's going on? How come this kid isn't growing? Something's wrong. That would have been alarming, huh? I think so. It would have been alarming.

But what about our spiritual life? How long have you been at this? Are you progressing in terms of fighting with the vices in your life and developing the virtues in your life? Have you come to know the voice of the Lord in a more intimate way? Are you in tune with his will and his mission? Do you take advantage now of those opportunities in public when God speaks to your heart and has you speak to somebody else

or minister to them in some way? Are you more patient than you were five years ago? Do you find it easier to fight against temptation than five years ago, for example? Is your understanding of the Word of God in the Catechism and the lives of the saints? Is it deeper, more comprehensive? Or are you about the same? Well, we're going to talk about that because being the same is actually going backward.

I love this scripture, and I'm going to put all these in the show notes for you. And again, please understand, I am not preaching at you. I am sharing with you because I am also talking to myself. And I've always been interested in spiritual growth. I don't want to stagnate. I don't want to just do the same old, same old. I want to grow. In my knowledge of Christ, I want to grow in terms of knowing who he is and becoming

like him. And I would advance this thought, and that is that when you stop growing in your relationship with the Lord, your interest wanes at that point. But listen to what the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 5 verses 11 and 16. Yes, it's in the show notes. He says, about this, we have much to say, which is hard to explain. So the writer of Hebrews is saying to the people, what I want to say to you is actually, it's hard to explain. But it's hard for a particular reason. He goes on and says, since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again, the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. for he is a child. And then the writer goes on, and he says,

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. Now, that's Hebrews chapter 5, verses 11 through 16. Now, what's interesting about that is that the writer says, I want to share certain things with you, but I cannot.

And I cannot, and it's not because I cannot articulate it. It is because you're dull of hearing. It's because that you need to go back now. You should be a teacher by now. You've been at this for a while. And you should be teaching. You should be making disciples. You should be replicating yourself. But you need a teacher yourself after 5, 10, 15, 20 years. You need a teacher yourself to teach you the first principles of God's Word. basically what the writer's saying is I wanted to give you solid food but you need milk again kind of like a baby now again I'm not preaching but if the shoe fits okay solid food is for the mature for those who have their faculties trained by what by practice

to distinguish good from evil how do we become more mature how do we become more in tune with God's will and his plan for our life and the heart of our Heavenly Father. Well, the writer of Hebrews is very clear about it. You've got to practice his word. Practice. Practice. Put it into practice. And by doing that, you're going to be able to distinguish between good and evil. So practicing or doing the word of God is the key to spiritual growth. When there is an opportunity to read scripture or pray, we say, I'm going to watch TV. that's where we go backward. People who do not grow spiritually have many, many excuses.

They don't typically read scripture regularly. They don't spend time with God in prayer. They have excuse after excuse as to why they cannot go forward and make progress in the spiritual life. They leave mass early. They don't see the benefit here. I like what Pope Benedict, or rather Pope Francis, had to say about this idea of spiritual growth. He talked about how pilgrimage, which is this ongoing journey to our father's house, it's the maturing and the making advances in the spiritual life,

he said that pilgrimage is a symbol of life. He goes on and he says, it makes us think of life as walking as a path. If a person does not walk, but instead stays still, this is not useful. It accomplishes nothing, he said. He said, then, think of water. When water is not in the river, it does not course, but instead it remains still and stagnates. A soul that does not walk in life, doing good, doing many things that one must do for society to assist others, or who does not walk through life-seeking God and inspiration from the Holy Spirit

is a soul that finishes in mediocrity and in spiritual poverty. Please, he said, do not stand still in life. Oh, I love that. Isn't that a great quote? That's the Holy Father saying, please, do not stand still in life. now as I look back in my own life I can see that those times where I wasn't growing spiritually I was in fact standing still

what the Holy Father is saying here reminds me of the geography of Israel I go to Israel every January you can come with me go to my website jeffcavens.com pilgrimages we go every January by the way we're going to Ireland this coming year you can find out all that information at jeffcavens.com. Love for you to come with us. We're going to have some good food, good fellowship, teaching, and if you're one of the lucky ones, going to Ireland, we're going to have a great time. But when I go to Israel, I love this metaphor of the two bodies of water. You've got

the Sea of Galilee up north, and then down south you have the Dead Sea. Now, the waters of the Sea of Galilee are fed by five tributaries, and all this fresh water is coming into the Sea of Galilee. Then the water from the Sea of Galilee empties in the south. It goes into the Jordan and all the way down to the Dead Sea. Now, once it gets down to the Dead Sea, there isn't an outlet. It just stays there, and the evaporation takes place. As a result, the Dead Sea is very wealthy. It's filled with all kinds of minerals and all kinds of wonderful magnesium, salt,

all kinds of things that are quite valuable. So the Dead Sea, while it's very valuable, is quite dead. But the Sea of Galilee is alive because it takes in and gives out constantly. And I think that's a great metaphor for our lives. When we look at our own life, we have to ask ourselves, am I taking in daily good food, prayer, reading scripture, going to Mass, holy hours, rosary, and then am I giving out constantly? Or like the Dead Sea, am I just receiving and receiving and not giving out, leaving me with, yes, maybe a rich life, but quite dead.

We're talking about spiritual growth. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, and this is in the show notes, But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for it, even, and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men. Now that's interesting because Paul, he equates people who cannot take solid food, but only milk as babes, and they remain as babes because they are jealous and they're a strife

among them, among one another. And there's all kinds of these problems. They're not making progress. They're not getting over it. In 1st Corinthians 1311, Paul says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reason like a child. And when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For us as Christians, for us to grow and mature, we need to give up the childish ways. Paul also wrote to Timothy, which Timothy was actually quite a young pastor in nephesis. And in fact, his youthfulness seemed to be a little bit of an issue. And Paul told him, you know, that, you know, don't look at yourself in a poor way because of your youthfulness. But he said to him, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed,

knowing from whom you learned it. And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred scriptures which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Another interesting fact that we can see from Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8, 1 through 18, in this parable of the soar, is that to be stagnant is not to grow, but actually to go backward, to shrink. You're either growing or you're shrinking right now in your life. And that's a good thing for us to ask ourselves, don't you think? Am I growing in virtue? Am I growing in my walk with the Lord?

Am I pursuing Christ right now? Or am I stagnant? Because to be stagnant is not to grow. And it's a good question. Where am I at right now? Now, Luke chapter 8 gives this amazing parable, you know, of the sower. And he ends in verse 18 by saying, take heed then how you hear.

And he talks about different ways of hearing the word God, for to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has, will be taken away. Now, I started off mentioning the Bunny Hill, back at Highland Hills in Bloomington, Minnesota, and I can remember being so excited about accomplishing and defeating that Bunny Hill. and then going on to the intermediate and then the advanced hill later. But, you know, I have not been skiing in all these years. And if I went out to Highland Skiing Area today,

I would have to start at the Bunny Hill with my little cute wedge, you know, skis on the V going down, looking like I was slaloming a little bit. I wouldn't be able to do what I did before, even though I would probably tell someone, oh, it's like riding a bike. I can just go out there and do it. I don't think so. I think I'd have to start over again.

And that's what happens when you don't exercise the gifts you have and the level of maturity that you attained. You kind of go backwards and you've got to start over again. This theme about growing spiritually, Paul seems to bring up over and over and over. I'm going to take a break right now. When I come back, I'm going to give you just a few more scriptures here, but then I want to talk to you about kind of a plan on going forward and walking in maturity so that we don't stay on the bunny hill of our life.

By the way, I got a wonderful email here. I want to share with you about a past show. Before we go to the break, this was from Lucy. Lucy said when I talked about trading in network news for reading scripture and prayer and adoration and how it can be much more advantageous to our spiritual growth. She said, I've turned off the TV and news and started listening to the many Catholic podcasts that are available. I listen while I iron, vacuum, work out, drive long distances, or clean out closets.

Yes, closets, she said, my closets have never been this organized. I love it. Lucy, thank you so much for that. We're going to take a break when we come back. let's go on a little bit deeper into are you still on the bunny hill of Catholicism or have you gone to intermediate and advanced? And if not, how do we go forward? What's the plan? You're listening to the Jeff Gaven show. The Bible is such an important part of our Catholic faith, but it's not always easy to understand. There are 73 separate books and so many names, places,

and events that sometimes we just stop trying to figure out how it all fits together. The good news is, the Great Adventure Bible studies make it easy for you to understand the Bible. By focusing on the story that ties all of Scripture together, the Great Adventure Bible studies give you the big picture of the Bible, and once you see the big picture of salvation history, the Mass will make more sense, the Catholic faith will make more sense, and you will see how God has a loving plan for your life. The Great Adventure Bible studies have helped hundreds of thousands of people to understand the Bible and grow closer to Christ.

There's no other Catholic Bible study series like it, and you can get started on the great adventure today by creating your free account at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. We're talking about growing spiritually. You know, we need to examine our life on a daily basis and ask ourselves, am I going forward or am I stagnant? Which stagnant in the Christian life means you're going backward.

It means you're shrinking. It means what you have been given. would even be taken away from you, and we don't want that. Paul continues with this theme, and by the way, before I read this, I do want to hear from you. I do want to hear from you. I want to know how you're doing in your spiritual life. You can write me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com.

Here's what Paul said. He said, and his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning of men by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Now we continue on here.

Listen to what he's saying. He says this in Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. We are to grow up. We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied when each part is working properly

makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love. You know what the key to this is? I think the key to this is Jesus Christ, even in Luke chapter 2, Jesus increased in wisdom in stature and in favor with God and man. You know what being spiritually mature is? You know what growing spiritually means? it means that we are becoming more like Christ in every area of our lives.

Our thought lives, what we do, how we spend our money, the people that we associate with, the way we spend our time, how we behave on business trips, all of it. We're either going forward or we're going backward. But the key is to become more like Jesus. And this takes a daily diligence on our part, a daily tenacity on our part. Is it easy? Not really. Is it valuable, worthwhile?

Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's look at a plan here. Can we just for a moment? Let me give you just a little bit of a plan of how we get going and kind of jumpstart ourselves spiritually. Number one, if we want to grow spiritual, spiritually, we've got to be men and women of the word.

We have to be people who read his word every day. We have to be people who study his word, listen to his voice, because he's revealing who he is and what he's done, and he's showing us what is required of us. And he's daily encouraging us, correcting us. He's giving us direction. He's giving us a clarity of thought. He's giving us wisdom for daily situations. If we want to grow from the bunny hill to the double diamond hill, we've got to be people

of the word. My friends, I'm going to put this in the show notes too. If you have children, you need to get the great adventure storybook for children. I'm going to put it in the notes. And I'm saying this with everything within me, I mean it, you've got to get it. We've got to teach our children the Word of God. We've got to give them the basic foundational information to grow spiritually. We don't want our kids on the bunny hill the rest of their life.

We've got to be people of the word. It's a great Christmas gift, by the way. You get three or four of them. Send them to your relatives. The Great Adventure Children's Storybook is a game changer in terms of teaching people, teaching children how to read the Bible and to get the big story out of the Bible. to discover where everything Catholic comes from in the Word of God. So Scripture, number one.

Number two, if we're going to continue to grow, the writer of Hebrews said it so well in Hebrews 6-1, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Repentance from dead works is a beginning point. And continuing on, we are men and women of faith.

faith. We've got to continue to be men and women of faith. Number three, I would really encourage you to incorporate in part of your growing plan to read the catechism. The catechism is a great, great source for understanding all things Catholic, all things spiritual. You have four pillars. You've got the creed. Number one, you've got the sacraments in liturgy, number two. Number three, you've got life in Christ. Number four, you have prayer. And basically that is understood this way. The creed, number one, is the story of salvation history. It's scripture. It's what I was talking about. You need to know that story. And then number two, sacraments and liturgy in the catechism is how you get into this amazing story. And number three is life in Christ. It's your script. It's what you live in this story.

And number four is prayer. And that kind of stitches it all. together. Get to know the catechism. Stick in there. Make a regular plan of reading it along with the Bible. And then number three, number four rather, is a life of prayer. You need this. You need a life of prayer. If you want to grow spiritually, I highly recommend Lexio Divina in the morning. And I highly recommend the examined prayer in the evening where you can look back on your day and make the adjustments that are necessary. There just is no way to make spiritual progress without prayer and without that intimacy with God on a daily basis. Number five, consciously do His Word in your life. Don't put it, don't put your life on cruise control. Consciously do His word in daily life.

It's personal conduct, how you relate to other people. your thought life, all of it. Paul wrote to Timothy in 1st Timothy, chapter 4. Let's see, chapter 4 in verse 7. He says, have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness. That kind of puts it in different light, doesn't it? That spiritual maturity doesn't happen just because you got older.

You had to put this into practice. You had to train yourself in godliness. You had to walk in faith. That's how you train yourself in godliness. Life's a big training, big training camp for heaven. We're training ourselves. We're not just cruising through life. L'Az-fair, you know, and waiting for retirement and sooner or later we're going to die.

No, no. We're training ourselves in godliness. And then number six, know yourself. Know your vices. Know your vices. the things that you really struggle with, write them down, begin to read some good material, begin to pray, and to be vigilant about fighting those vices with the virtues.

And a virtue is a repetitive habit that you incorporate into your spiritual life so that you don't stay on the bunny hill. People who stay spiritually on the bunny hill, their whole life, are not people of scripture, not people of prayer. They're not consciously doing the Word of God, they don't know themselves. They are not struggling with the vices. They're not developing the virtues

in their life. They just like to add those little ski lift tags to their ski coat, but they're not advancing to the intermediate and to the double diamond hill. Well, this is just a challenge for you today. It's a challenge for me as well. Every once in a while, I think we need somebody just to remind us, hey, there's growth here. There's more for you to have in this spiritual life. Don't be complacent. Don't be satisfied with where you're at, but strive onward and look to Christ and want to be like him and pursue him and develop the habits that are necessary to become like him. Now, you know that when I was young, I started skiing on that bunny hill. And as I said, after much practice, in a coat filled with ski lift tags, I could slalom on the king hill.

but if I went out this week I'd be back on the bunny hill for one reason and one reason only haven't been practicing and so I want to leave you with this thought are you like that spiritually what hill are you on what hill are you on right now

the bunny hill the intermediate or the double diamond and I hope that if you're on that bunny hill, still after five, ten years, that you would hear God calling you to the intermediate hill to grow and to mature and to excel in the spiritual life. Think about it. I'm going to end with this, but think about it for a moment. We, you and I, we are so blessed. We are so amazingly blessed. You've got a Bible. You've got a catechism. You've got the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

You've got the Blessed Mother. You've got the communion of saints. You have the Holy Father, Pope Francis. You have the Cardinals. You have the bishops. You have the brethren around you. You have all of the sacraments. You have all of the blessings that God can give us.

let's not stay on the bunny hill let's progress shall we i'm going to close in prayer and once again i want to encourage you to write me if this has made any sense to you at all go to iTunes and go ahead make comments rank the show if you want at ascensionpresents.com some of you are listening as a result of that particular channel but give me some feedback i'd love to hear about it and if you have other ideas for shows that you'd like to hear about, please let me know. And I do thank you ahead of time for sharing the show with loved ones and friends that you care about and you want them to also grow in Christ. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, I thank you for my friends who are listening. While we cannot see each other,

our hearts are together in pursuing you. And Lord, what a privilege it is to have such good brothers and sisters. Now, I pray, I pray, O Lord, that you would call. us to new heights. I pray, Lord, that we would sense that in our heart and say yes to you and begin to make the changes in our life that would help us in our spiritual growth and that we would never be happy just being where we're at, but we always, always, always want more of you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you, my friend. You have a great week. Thank you.