The following is a transcript of a Raised Catholic podcast episode.
To listen to the episode, click here.
Today is episode 180: When We Get it Wrong
Hi friends. Now, I’m still crossing my fingers about this, but it sure feels like this week, I may have finally found the solution to a health problem that has been nagging me for literally years. And the funny thing (or I guess not so funny, actually) is that along the way, some of the things that I’ve tried to solve this problem have likely made the problem much worse. And this is true, even though I had seen doctors and gotten tests and medical advice and done a bit of research on my own, and honestly, I thought I was helping. Now that I have the clarity of knowing exactly what this situation actually is, and the clear solution for this particular problem, I see what I previously did not, and as it turns out, I was one doctor’s visit and one medication away from feeling better than I have in years.
All along, I had done my very best, but the truth is that we don’t know what we don’t know.
Today I ran out the door to teach a music class with everything I would need for a full day away from home. The three drinks that every girl needs – one to hydrate, one to caffeinate and one for fun (in my case, this is water, coffee and my smoothie). I grabbed my laptop, keys, wallet, phone, sunglasses, medication I’d need for lunchtime. And all of my music class stuff was already in the car, so I thought I was all set. As it turned out, I had every single thing I needed except for my glasses, but since I was already running late, I decided to take the short drive without them.
It was a decision I regretted almost immediately.
My thinking was, I’ll be fine. My prescription is not very strong, it was a short distance, it would technically be safe but maybe a little uncomfortable, and I could handle that. Along the short drive, I did find myself focusing hard and getting a little irritated with other drivers. I got a little bit of a headache and was maybe a smidge fearful. This was the most effort I had put into driving in some time, and all because I lacked the lenses I needed to get where I needed to go in the most restful way possible.
But this is us, right? This is hilarious humanity. We rush forward even when we can’t see a hundred percent clearly. We drive ahead and we might get worried along the way or maybe we get irritated with our fellow drivers, but mostly, we just want to arrive. We want to get there. Even when we don’t have the whole, right picture, we humans do tend to keep right on going, don’t we?
We can think: when I get there, I’ll be safe. When I get there, I’ll finally be able to breathe, I won’t be irritated. When I get there, I’ll relax. But all of this is out of order, right, because if we can’t see clearly, how is it that we will ‘get there’ at all? If we don’t have the right diagnosis, how can we possibly find the cure?
Okay, so how do these two stories relate to the experience of our faith? What are the things that we may be missing or the things that we perhaps are not seeing as clearly as we need to as we drive through this life when it comes to our faith? Well, maybe you’re thinking, um, thank you so much for these questions, but for me, the answer is nothing. I have the whole picture and everything I believe is true – otherwise, I wouldn’t believe it, right?
But what are the odds that every single thing that you and I believe, everything we were taught as children or learned later from some priest or pastor or teacher is one hundred percent objectively true? How likely is it that you or I happened to land in a family or neighborhood or a country or a church in which they got absolutely everything right? Wouldn’t that be, statistically speaking, kind of impossible? What if we don’t know what we don’t know about something as large as, you know, the all-knowing, eternal God of the universe and how God works?
In the Catholic church, like every church, there are a range of opinions, beliefs and practices across both the laity and the clergy. We are all cafeteria Catholics, after all. Yet more and more, we hear some people claiming the ‘right’ way to be Catholic or Christian or whatever, based on something they heard someone say – a priest or someone on social media or a news channel they like and trust. And okay, me too – after all, I probably wouldn’t have a podcast if I didn’t have a strong opinion or two, right?
But it is the lack of humility, this certainty about one way’s ‘rightness’ and everyone else’s ‘wrongness’ that has become so very pervasive in some corners of American Catholicism – from how we receive the Eucharist to what we wear to church to who we welcome (spoiler: according to Jesus, that’s supposed to be everyone) but anyway, it’s this kind of stalwart, unyielding, critical and defiant culture-warring Catholicism that I think somewhere along the line, may have lost the plot.
As we were building the Raised Catholic podcast in the very beginning in late 2020, we asked some pretty foundational questions in the earliest episodes like ‘Who is God?’ and ‘Who are you?’ – questions meant to help us open our minds and wonder about our faith, to stretch and own it for ourselves, and in episode number four, we asked a big one. “Is it Okay to Question?” And I’ll link that one for you in the show notes, but I don’t think it will be a huge surprise to hear me say that the answer is absolutely yes.
And not only can we question, we should from time to time take a look at our beliefs and practices, and ask ourselves where they came from, and where those beliefs are leading us. For those of us who profess Christianity, we can ask how our beliefs and words and actions align with the things that Jesus actually said and did. We can dig into prayer and scripture, particularly the Sermon on the Mount and the fruits of the Spirit, and without any other human directing our response, we can ask the Holy Spirit what a mature faith grounded in Christ should look like and where we might be getting it wrong today. This Holy Spirit lives in each one of us and is available to us, friend, so even if you’ve never had a conversation with Him before, either out loud or through journaling, I guess I would say here: be not afraid. He’s our friend, after all.
It feels lately like some of us, and probably all of us in some ways, may be taking quite a lot of the wrong medicine and believing that it is sanctifying and healing us when really, it is doing harm. Like maybe we’re driving to a good destination with all the best intentions, but along the way, we seem to have forgotten our glasses. Maybe a better set of lenses would help us to get there without all of the irritability, fear, and that nagging headache we get when we work too hard all on our own power. Jesus said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light when we let Him drive, so maybe we should.
Because we don’t know what we don’t know, right? And with so many voices out there clamoring with their tribal messages of ‘us’ versus ‘them’, it can be kind of easy to kind of go on autopilot with the practice of our faith and let a louder voice drive, but the truth is that there is nothing more dangerous that we could do.
Because it’s one life we get, right, and how we view God and faith and religion is a pretty big part of how many of us live this life out. Thankfully, being wrong and questioning, mercy and grace, pivoting and resurrection and starting again – well, all of this kind of all baked into what Christianity is, right? It’s what real relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit are really all about: God’s amazing grace. Because we don’t know what we don’t know and odds are, each one of us is wrong about at least some of the picture we currently have about the life, plan, nature and work of an eternal God that we can’t see, and that’s okay, right? That’s to be expected. We’re only human.
When we draw close to the Holy Spirit and directly ask Him to speak into the areas we might have wrong, I believe He will, because He’s a good parent and He loves us and He wants to help. Along the way, we will certainly hear from Him about our belovedness as well, because that’s just who He is. So, why not try some prayerful journaling this week? With the right lenses and the right cure, we just may find ourselves feeling better and clearer than we have in a long, long time. Certainly, that will help us to get where we’re going with a lot more peace.
Thanks so much for being with me today, friend. If you need me, you can find me on Instagram @kerrycampbellwrites, at Substack at kerrycampbellwrites.substack.com, where I hope you’ll leave a comment on this week’s episode, or on my website at kerrycampbell.org. Thanks so much for rating, reviewing, subscribing and most importantly, sharing this podcast with a friend. That makes a real difference in growing our community, so thanks. If you would like to support this podcast financially, there are a couple of ways for you to do that in the show notes, along with some resources related to today’s episode, so do check all of that out, but before we go, let’s pray together.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Oh Lord, in our flawed humanity, it is for certain that we are currently getting it wrong in lots of ways and places, but thankfully you already know that, so give us the humility this week to look and see clearly and to begin to heal the parts of our faith practice that need your clarity, mercy, forgiveness, and care. For us and for our dear ones we pray in the name of Jesus and wrapped in the mantle of our Mother Mary, amen.
Thanks so much for joining me today, friend. Have a good week ahead, and I’ll see you next time.
Show Notes
This week we’re considering how to begin to know what we don’t know when it comes to God and how we practice our faith. I hope this episode is a blessing to you.
If you’d like to connect with me, find me on Instagram, at my website, or on Substack. If you’d like to help support this podcast financially, there’s a way to do just that on my page at buymeacoffee.com! Thanks for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow.
Thanks as always to my friend, Peter Vaughan-Vail, for providing the beautiful harp music you hear in this and every episode.
Here are some resources to help you dig into this week’s topic on your own:
1. Podcast link/transcript: Raised Catholic episode 4: Is it Okay to Question?
2. Song: See the Love, by The Brilliance
3. Podcast: The Examen with Fr. James Martin, SJ
4. Read the Beatitudes, then try this Examen
5. Scripture: Sermon on the Mount
6. Song: Hold on to Me, by Lauren Daigle
7. Song: There Was Jesus, by CAIN
8. Song: Adonai, by Chris Renzema