The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - What Is Essential?

Episode Date: April 17, 2020

When so many things are stripped away, we’re left to examine what’s most important. Jeff discusses how we can simplify our lives by discovering the things that are essential, and taking away the things that distract us from what matters most. Get the shownotes! Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 or email us at [e-mail]

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 162. What is essential? Perhaps it's time to simplify. 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. Hey, I want to welcome you and thank you again for taking the time to spend a few minutes with me as we do every week talking about issues that are facing discipleship, the issue of discipleship in our lives and our walk with the Lord. And again, we find ourselves this week in the same situation that we were in last week, and that is a pandemic and people quarantined in their homes and facing difficulties

that they've never, ever faced before. Well, I've got some ideas today that I want to share with you that I think might make a difference, and at least you can use the time that you have in your home in a productive way. You know, life has really compressed at this moment where you have work and school and relationships all brought together in an unprecedented way, and it shows us who we are, and, you know, the areas that the Lord wants to work on in our lives. And I haven't met anybody I haven't met anybody yet that hasn't said that they haven't struggled at times, you know, in relationships and with their anger, loneliness, fear, whatever it might be. On Ascension's Facebook live page, I have been going through a special edition of walking toward eternity where I've been looking at

some of these topics. And it's, you know, it's been good to be able to address issues like anger and fear and loneliness and so forth, because these are the real issues that many people are facing. The good news is that Jesus Christ is Lord, he is on the throne, and he wants to do something in our lives even now in what we are experiencing. And so be encouraged. He has overcome the world. I want to talk a little bit about what is essential in our lives, and it may be a time to simplify, to use the time in a very, constructive way, in a way that will lead to fruitfulness in our lives, both in other relationships that we have with people, our family, but mainly in the relationship that we have with the Lord. You know, it's times like this where we suddenly realize what we were

addicted to, you know, or what we were leaning on, or what we were depending on in our life when suddenly we didn't have access anymore, whether it's people or things or job or transportation, whatever it might be. I do find it interesting and understandable that at this time so many stores are closed and restaurants, non-essential places are closed, but on that list of essential places are liquor stores. And I was listening to somebody talk on the news the other night and they were saying that it's on the essential list because so many people are addicted to alcohol and alcoholics, and that if suddenly that is cut off, they said you are going to have a trickle-down impact on society that has a lot of other problems that are associated with alcoholism or drug

addiction, whatever it might be. But what is your drug, right? You could ask that question. What's your drug of choice? Maybe it's not alcoholism. or meth or cracker or whatever it is. But maybe there's other things in our life that the Lord is really trying to deal with us about. And this goes all the way back to the Old Testament. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, part of the whole sacrificial system actually was a breaking of the addiction that Israel had to Egyptian gods. And that was difficult, and that was a wilderness. that's also what some of us are experiencing right now, is that wilderness. By the way, if you want to get show notes for all the shows and going forward, you can text

me, Jeff Kavens. It's just one word, Jeff Kavins, J-E-F-F-C-A-V-I-N-S, and you can text 3-3-7-7. Text it to 3-3-7-7. I love that text number, two Trinities, and three-covenant numbers of I like that. 33777, and we will put you on the list. So let's talk a little bit about what is essential. This is a good time to do that in our life. And what I mean by essential is not just what comforts us, but what is really essential in life? You know, when you pair everything down to relationships and things and knowledge and time and all of that. What is really essential in your life? You know, you can go to the store. In fact, this happened to me about a week and a half or so ago. I went to the store, and I was shocked. I went to a store that I've

gone to for 20 years, and there were great big shelves that were empty, completely empty. Of course, you know what, you know what shelves that I'm talking about. You know. The toilet paper, right? That's essential, apparently. Right now, it's very essential. Cleaning products were essential, chlorox, and vitamin C, interestingly enough, that society has deemed vitamin C is essential. And I get that. You know, it's to help your immune system, you know, vitamin D, vitamin C, A. So you can go to almost any area of the store, and you get an idea of what people are labeling as, essential items in the store. And in fact, I went by Costco. It was so funny. I actually just wanted to drive by to, I didn't have any plans of going in, but I wanted to drive by to see what the

crowds were like, and somebody told me that they were posting essential items that they were out of on the front door. So I drove by, and all of a sudden, I realized that people were running into the store, running into the store. And as I observed this, people were coming out of the store with a great big bundle of toilet paper. Word got out. Essential items are available, right? So it is interesting. People are making decisions about what is essential and non-essential in their lives. Let's boost that up a little bit and talk about life in general. Sometimes life gets heavy, and we wish we could get the time to simplify some of the things in our life. You know, prior to the pandemic, we would often find ourselves saying, well, I just wish I could get

a stretch of time, and that might be hard right now. I do get that because the kids are home and the businesses at home. But we would say, if I had the stretch of time, here's what I would do. You know, I would simplify the things in my life and go through this closet, go through that closet, the basement, the attic, whatever it might be. And this has been something on my mind all throughout this quarantine period. Because, you know, as I look back in the Bible, I see that as Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years, in many ways, it was about what is essential and what's non-essential. And they found themselves in the wilderness with the essential items, and that is that they had one another. Yes, they had food, the manna, shelter, and God was with them.

And God said, I brought you out here to show you something about what's essential. And what he said was, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And so going from Egypt with the onions and leaks and all the food, and the birds and everything that they could eat, they finally, you know, found themselves in the wilderness and having to make some decisions about what is essential, and God helped them with that by bringing them into the wilderness. So sometimes, you know, life gets, how do I say it, life gets heavy. Life gets heavy, and we wish that we could get the time to simplify some of the things in our life, and by that I mean simplify your things and your media intake and

your relationships. And you might think, how can I do that when all of life is compressed into a quarantined environment? Well, that's the challenge. But that was the challenge before the quarantine. It's just tighter now. But what a good time to hit it head on. I was listening to a lecture the other day, and the guy said something very interesting. He said that in Chinese, a Chinese character for crisis was actually made up of two ideas. And I guess I've heard this before, but I think it is interesting that it's a Chinese character, and we're dealing with something that came out of Wuhan. And I just find this interesting. You know, I'm not drawing any conclusions or anything like that. Just interesting. The Chinese character for the word crisis means two things. One,

it signifies danger. And the other thing that it signifies is opportunity. Danger and opportunity. And I think that that is, that spells out well, you know, crisis in what we are facing many of our families is that there seems to be a sense of danger and doom for some. And yet on the same coin, I should say, there are opportunities. So there's danger and opportunity. And that's what we find ourselves in today. And so we can reevaluate everything, everything in our life. And if you're feeling less than happy, this is a good time to sit back and evaluate what you may have been depending on, good or bad. That is, and it's now removed from your life. As one man said, he said, that all of our idols have fallen. All of our idols have fallen. And when you are idols,

fall, you are suddenly painfully aware of the emptiness in your life, that those things that maybe shouldn't have been first in your life are gone. They're gone, and that leads you to a sense of emptiness, if that has been your life. I appreciate what C.S. Lewis said, and I'll put this in the show notes for you. He had a great quote from his book, The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, and he said, let your happiness depend on something you may lose. Isn't that powerful? I'll say that again. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. And then he goes on and says, if love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only beloved who will never pass away. and that's Jesus Christ.

I think that's a beautiful quote. Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose. And my friend, if you're like me, I'm going through this whole evaluation process as well. We have lost some stuff, and maybe our happiness did depend on something that we could lose, and now we've lost it, and here we are. But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. he will never forsake you. He will never leave you. He will be with you. He will be with you in the good, the bad, and the ugly. And he says to you, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden,

and I will give you rest. Now, here's a couple things. Here's some things that I've been thinking about that I wrote down, I wanted to share with you, that you could do at this time when you're determining what really is essential. You know, what is essential? What is essential? and that if I lost it, would have an impact on my life. And the more essential, the bigger the impact. For example, I would encourage you to make a list. Now, you can do this with your spouse, you can do it by yourself, you can do it with your family.

Make a list individually or as a family of those things that you genuinely miss as a result of the COVID-19 quarantine. These are things that you genuinely miss. Now, I could give you a couple of ideas right there that would be on my list, things that I genuinely miss, I miss getting together with people. There's a group of friends that we have. I genuinely miss that. I miss being with them. I miss the freedom of being with my grandchildren.

I miss that. And I miss probably more than anything else going to church and receiving the Lord in the Euchar. I miss that. I'm not saying that lightly. I miss that. No, I miss that. No, I miss that. And that's had an impact on my life. Or going to confession. Oh, man, that's, you know, I start thinking, well, wow, we, you know, before this happened, I could tell you 25 parishes to go to confession every, every week in the, in the Twin Cities, and it was so easy. Now it's so hard, you know? So that, that's difficult. But, but anyway, write down, make a list individually, or as I said, as a family of those things that you genuinely miss as a result of the COVID-19 quarantine. And ask yourself two questions. Was that misplaced? Was that misplaced

dependency? Was that misplaced? Or we could say non-essential to a happy life? Or is what you are missing core to happiness in life? What was, was that misplaced? As you look at that, as you look at that list, the things that you genuinely miss, is that just misplaced hope and we put our hearts in the wrong place? Or is it genuinely core to the happiness in my life? And yes, I miss it. I miss those people. I miss the mass. I miss the Lord. Now, when Israel found themselves, as I mentioned earlier, earlier in quarantine for 400 years, actually, and then 40 years in the wilderness, they found out very quickly what was essential. And they found out what they had been depending on, which was the gods of the Egyptians, the food, the worship, the way of life. When you have a list

prepared, go through that list, and talk to the Lord, or talk with your spouse or your family about what you need to change in terms of expectations and attempts to be happy in life. It really is an opportunity to reevaluate what is essential. Now, if you're trying to endure the pandemic with the pre-pandemic habits and automatic living, then you probably are not going to make a lot of progress. Let me just reiterate that thought. if you're trying to endure this current pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, with the pre-pendemic habits that you had and the automatic living that you experience, then you're probably not going to make a lot of

progress during this quarantine. That is, if your habits need to be adjusted, if your habits are healthy in terms of coping, thriving, and being fruitful, then share what you have been what's been working for you with other people, share them with your family. But if there are habits that need to be adjusted, let's be honest about it. Let's be honest about it and say, the way I was living, the way I was living, now I see it's empty. Now I see I was propped up by all kinds of of things, you know, in my life. I was propped up by the idols of this world. We'll talk a little bit more about that. When I come back, I have a couple of scriptures for you that are amazing when it comes to the essentials and determining the essentials. You're listening to the Jeff

Kaven Show. If you're looking for a way to learn more about your Catholic faith, I invite you to check out the Ascension Presents YouTube channel. You're going to find tons of free videos featuring Catholic presenters like Matt Frad, Leodero, Jackie Bobby Angel, and Emily Wilson. Go to YouTube.com slash ascension presents. That's YouTube.com slash ascension presents. And if you like what you see, please share and subscribe. And welcome back. And we're talking about what is essential and kind of going through an exercise of simplifying our lives once we know what is essential in our lives and what was working, what didn't work, what opportunities are ahead of us in terms of reordering and reprioritizing the things that are essential in our life.

So, you know, when we look at this from a big picture, we find that many people today are in one of two camps, kind of. One, during this quarantine, people are bored out of their minds or angry or fearful or anxious because what made them happy has been removed. I talked to someone who knows the fire department locally here who said that three out of four calls during this quarantine period are domestic violence calls. and that means that people are out of their minds, uncomfortable, fearful, anxious, and it is imploding in the family.

So many people find themselves bored out of their minds. Others are maintaining their disciplines, both natural and supernatural, the spiritual disciplines of life, and have found new ways of filling their time that are fulfilling. and they are responding some people out of emptiness by trying to bring about healthy changes that have been necessary actually all along prior to the pandemic. But they didn't recognize or perceive the need for change prior to the pandemic. Prior to being quarantined, it's like God couldn't get their attention. and C.S. Lewis, he says that God screams in our suffering. He's trying to get our attention.

This last month has been like a flare shot up above our schedules and habits, alerting us to the problems associated with mediocrity and indifference in a life on autopilot. where life is consisted of funny memes, professional sports, concerts, eating out at the local microbrewery, fall festivals, school concerts, graduations, walking into the bank for a loan for the new boat, massages, frequent haircuts, amazing access to doctors because our back is hurting. When we live a life filled with all this, which there's nothing wrong, we suddenly realize when it's all taken away what my life has been. Now, there are two scriptures that I find just powerful scriptures that I want to share with you, and then we'll give a couple of, maybe some,

a list of some suggestions on how we can, you know, look at narrowing down what's essential and some of the areas we might look at. Here's a scripture that I've often enjoyed. I enjoy them all, but you know what I mean. And it says in Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 through 33, Jesus said, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body,

what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barn. and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so close the grass

of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows, knows that you need them all. And here it is, are you ready? Verse 33. But seek first his kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well. And so we've got this incredible text in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus says, let me help you put that list together and find out what's essential. I'll tell you, in the wilderness back in the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers,

what did God say to Israel? He said, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You see, you can live by what God tells you. Seek first His kingdom, that is His rule and reign in your life and his righteousness, and all these things are going to be added to you. The other text that I find very beneficial at a time like this is the comparison between Mary and Martha, and Jesus actually draws a distinction between the two.

What they're both doing is good, but Jesus gives a priority here, as it says in Luke chapter 10, and I'll put these scriptures in the notes for you. Luke chapter 10 versus 38 through 42. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha received him into her home, and she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. One thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be

taken away from her. Isn't that beautiful? So as you look at what the situation that you're in in this quarantine period right now, I really encourage you to determine what is really essential, essential in terms of what you're doing throughout the day, the relationships that you have. What's essential when it comes to social media and watching television? And what's essential when it comes to your children being at home with you? For example, you know, a lot of

a lot of you, and I've received email from you, I know that that is difficult because your home now is school, right? And a lot of people are frustrated. In fact, there's a lot of pressure on, I think, particularly women who feel the pressure of, and it can be men too. I'm not, it's not one way or another, but I know a lot of cases where women have mothers, wives have felt very pressured that I have my own life, I have my own job, and I've got these children, you know, I've got the children that I have to take care of, and they don't know what to do, and they don't feel like they have any help. And so tempers flare. And is there a priority? Is there something essential? for you as a mom or you as a dad in your relationship with the children during this quarantine period.

Well, yes, the priority is even above learning Spanish or German or geometry or violin or social studies or world history. The priority is to maintain the relationship you have with them as mom, as dad. and it isn't to buckle down and to be angry and to say, well, we've got to get through this algebra or geometry or trigonometry less than it. Number one is to be a mom. And I think that in a situation that we're facing right now, I think there is time for pulling back. Chill. Relax. Be mom, be dad. Everybody's in this boat. When we are done with this, COVID-19 mess, there's not going to be a big trigonometry test for all the kids in America.

The schools are going to understand. Everyone's going to understand what's essential. What's essential is being mom, being dad, being a wife, being a husband, being a friend, being a faithful disciple of the Lord. If there's something that you thought you should have started during this time in terms of your relationship with the Lord, don't wait. this is also a way of simplifying what are the steps that you can begin to do today to develop your relationship with the Lord or to spend that extra quality time with your son or daughter rather than being angry about what they need to do for homework. Now don't leave thinking, well, man, Jeff said we don't have to do our schoolwork with our kids. I never said that. I said there's

something essential in the relationship. And that's what we're talking about. today, right? Something essential. It might be a time to simplify subscriptions online. Have you ever really sat down and went through all of the subscriptions on the apps on your phone? I did this about a year ago. I went to the section, I can't remember it off the top of my head, Apple, iPhone, and I went to the store in a place that showed the subscriptions and when they come up again. and I'll be honest with you. I was a little surprised at how many $9.99 a year apps I said yes to, you know? And so I canceled.

I canceled a lot of them. Now I can send the kids to college. I'm kidding you. But you know what I mean? You'd be surprised at how many things you've subscribed to that sounded good. You know, you wanted to have those bunny ears on the picture, whatever it might be. But you don't use them anymore, but it's automatically. It's automatically charged to your card every year.

You might want to take a look at online subscriptions or magazines, all the things that are coming into your house that are complicating your life. Now might be the good time to go through all that and say, you know what, given the financial situation that we're in, I'm going to cut some of this. And that might actually feel good, right? If you're paralyzed with the number of things that have accumulated prior to the pandemic, start with one.

Start with one. You know, getting rid of things. if you're going through closets and things like that, a lot of people say, well, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. There's just too much to get rid of. There's too much to sort. There's too many things online. Well, one of the things that you can do is, and I've heard this used before by people who live a minimalist lifestyle, I guess you could say, is that they started on the first day and said, well, I'm going to get rid of one thing. Now, I don't say just throw it in the garbage. that could be irresponsible. You want to know if you can recycle. You can give this away after this

quarantine is over. Put them in a box, you know, in the garage, whatever it might be. Or some things just need to be thrown away. But start with one, one thing, one thing today. Tomorrow, double it. Two things. Two things. The next day, double it. You're up to four. Double it. The next day, you're up to eight. Then you're up to 16. Even after a week, you have started to hack away. at that accumulative mess in your life that is causing emotional distress. I'm just suggesting it's a way to do it. Start with one, start and then double. It's a good way to determine really what's essential to. Go through your library maybe, you know, pick up your library, go through your library and pick out the books that you have read and you know that you're never going to read

them again. Give them away. Get them away. Detach. Detach. Essential. What's essential? What is essential? Maybe you say, well, I love those books. I like to look at those books. Well, maybe you don't need that many books. Take away 30 books and put a beautiful picture of Jesus there. What's essential? Create a holy place of prayer within your home, a Bible, a statue, candle, gather the family. If your family's watching Mass together on Sunday, you can make Mass or you can make Sunday a Sabbath by what you eat, what you wear, and what you consume. I'm talking about media, books, and things like that. Someone suggested a beautiful suggestion. They said, if you're going to watch Mass on Sunday as a family online, get dressed up. Get dressed up.

Get dressed up. Make that day special. Make it special. And by the way, and I want to leave you with this, the other night, and I don't remember who told me about it, to be honest with you. Maybe it was on a news show or something. But it's a movie that Emily and I watched that rarely do I get movies that I would consider tear jerkers, besides old Yeller. But I don't have many movies like that. In fact, I'm going to be doing a show coming up here. It's called The Two Movies That I Cryed at and Why.

but there was a movie that we watched this last week, which I thought was well done, good content, and really was refreshing in the times that we're living in right now. And I'll put this in the show notes. The movie was, it's called A Question of Faith. It was on Lifetime. A Question of Faith. Fantastic example of how God can work in our lives in the midst of tragedy. I'm not going to give it away. Don't worry about that. No spoiler alert here. but if you're looking for a good movie, I would encourage you to watch A Question of Faith on Lifetime. And let me know what you think about that movie. It is, and I know right away you're going to say, well, that's a bunch of Protestants on there. Yeah, yay, it was. And they did a

fantastic job. And there's actually a priest in there, too. You have to look for that. But anyway, as a good movie, watch it if you want something that's uplifting for the family. hey, I want you to know that I love you and I'm praying for you. And I want you to know also that our lives prior to the pandemic might have become cluttered, might have become overly busy and overly dependent upon some of the things in this world that are gone now. And just to remind you, you know, what C.S. Lewis said, do not let your happiness depend on something you may. lose. Go through your life, relationships, things, time. Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only beloved who will never pass away. And that's Jesus Christ. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the sun and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my friends today, and I lift them up to you. I thank you, Lord, that in all of our lives, the essentials are oftentimes not in their proper place.

And I ask you, Lord, to help us to see what is essential in our lives and to help us to make the adjustments. I thank you, Lord, for using this time, this quietness, that wilderness to draw us to yourself, where we can hear your voice in the quiet, yet a storm outside. We thank you, Lord, for walking with us, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. My friend, I have the show notes for you, all the scriptures, but do share this with your friends. Go to iTunes. Google Play. Be a part of promoting Catholic podcasts

and podcasts related to Christ as there are people out there searching right now. And they need Jesus. Let's work together. God bless you. I love you.