If you sell crack to kindergarten students, no need to read this.
Same thing if you donate all your belongings and income to the poorest and sickest in the slums and ghettos.
The rest of us have compromised. We're not profit-maximizing sociopaths, nor are we saints. We're somewhere in between.
It's interesting to consider where we choose to compromise. I know people with $50,000,000 in the bank who still don't believe that they have enough, who still grind away at a job they don't like trying to earn another penny. I also know fundraisers for non-profits (ones that they believe in) who aren't willing to swallow hard and make a difficult fundraising pitch or promote a new approach to raising money that might feel risky.
Would you take a 10% pay cut to market a product you truly love and believe in? Would you pass up a 15% raise to market something like Twinkies?
Everyone is at their own level, but my impression is that most people sort of randomly end up somewhere on the greed/joy/work/good spectrum without really considering moving one way or the other.
If you've built your life around service to others, how much more could you accomplish if you were a little greedier? If you've built an expensive lifestyle around a well-paying job, what would happen to your life if you downsized and sought out more joy or generosity?
No right answers, but some good questions.
This is why Seth Godin is inspiring and why you need to read his blog. Period.
This made me think about The Sainthood Project and what I am trying to do, so today I am choosing to "not" compromise to a certain extent. I want to make the following offer and anyone in any parish or church can take advantage of it. This offer will be based on desire of the parish and will be somewhat need-based.
Keep in mind that I am taking The Sainthood Project to its maximum potential in my own life. I am doing everything I can to live it out. That means that I am willing to take the "10% pay cut" to market sainthood. I am willing to take a 100% pay cut to market the idea that we need more saints in the world.
Here is how I see things. The Sainthood Project is a way for people to connect with each other through this site as they pursue something that the world sees as impossible. The Sainthood Project is a way for us to encourage each other to get closer to Sainthood every day of our lives. The Sainthood Project is a way for us to change ourselves so that we can change the world through being Christ to the world. That is going to manifest itself in a number of gifts in a number of different ways.
I want to bring The Sainthood Project to your parish. I want to come to your parish and do a one, two, or three day parish mission, parish retreat, parish reflection. Call it what you will. I want to do it for one reason and one reason only: I want to transform your parish by convincing 100 people in your parish to choose sainthood. To desire sainthood. To live life with the passion that God has called them to live it with. For each of the 100 to fully realize the potential to love that God has placed in them. To reach out to the rest of the parish, to the rest of the community, to the rest of the world.
What would happen if you could get 100 people in your parish to make that commitment? What would happen in your parish if you could get 100 people to live their Faith with a real joy? What would happen if you could get 100 people committed to living the life that God wants them to live: passionate about their vocations, their parish, their community?
I want to do this with five parishes.
I will do this and waive my normal speaking fee for these five parishes only.
Just cover the transportation.
I would just ask that you "pass a hat" at each evening to support The Sainthood Project so that we can reach more parishes, more people, more groups, more schools.
The project doesn't end with the mission. I would like to continue to work with each parish in the coming year to develop resources for small groups that are dedicated to living lives of prayer, virtue, beatitude, and filled with the Fruits of the Spirit. These groups can be young or old, teens, tweens, retired, or young adult. Sainthood cuts across age boundaries.
I want this to be with the five parishes that God is calling to step in this direction.
If you are on a parish staff, if you are an associate, if you are a pastor, consider if this is the direction you would like to go. If it is, let's talk.
