{"id":18556,"date":"2012-06-27T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=18556"},"modified":"2012-06-27T13:02:30","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T18:02:30","slug":"i-am-not-brandon-vogt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/i-am-not-brandon-vogt\/","title":{"rendered":"I am not Brandon Vogt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I know you can\u2019t hear me sigh when I type these words, so you\u2019ll just have to imagine it.<\/p>\n

I am not Brandon Vogt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of months back, I made the fortunate mistake of following Brandon Vogt on Facebook. For those who don\u2019t know who Brandon is, he\u2019s what I\u2019d call a celebrity. \u00a0Not a real celebrity, mind you, of the People magazine variety, but an internet celebrity of Catholicism. The internet is the realm of quasi-celebrities – people who don\u2019t really qualify for celebrity status in the culture at large, but who are doing awesome work in a niche. Brandon is one of my heroes of the new evangelization. \u00a0He\u2019s a dad, husband, author<\/a>, and speaker<\/a> with a quick wit<\/a> and a heart for service.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the problem? \u00a0I\u2019m not him!<\/p>\n

Of course, it is in jest that I say it\u2019s a problem that I am not Brandon. \u00a0As much as I love the work he\u2019s doing, I use him to make a point that it\u2019s easy for us to idolize the people we follow and idealize the work that they\u2019re doing. \u00a0Have you ever noticed that the gifts of others often look so much brighter than our own? \u00a0Like kids on Christmas morning, we can\u2019t help but look around at what our brothers and sisters got, just to see how it all stacks up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy for me, in one of my less stellar moments, to look at all that Brandon does and feel like I\u2019m just not doing enough. \u00a0In these moments, I have to take a step back and remind myself that God already has a Brandon Vogt doing that work. \u00a0He needs me to be Chris Williston. \u00a0My job, then, is to tirelessly pursue just what being Chris Williston means, from God\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of months, I\u2019ve been giving a lot of thought to the individual personalities of my kids. \u00a0As a Dad, I want to recognize their strengths and help them direct their attention towards activities that give them self-confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. \u00a0This, of course, forces me to fight the urge of feeling like I\u2019m failing my son by not putting him back in tee ball, an activity for which he expressed passive apathy, at best.<\/p>\n

In this endeavor of compassionate parenting, I find myself doing a lot of observing and listening, trying to see what motivates each of the kids. What do they talk about when it\u2019s just me and them? \u00a0How do they act when they\u2019re not in competition with each other? \u00a0What are they saying when a tinge of excitement creeps into their voice?<\/p>\n

In the same kind of way, figuring out what it means to be a God-inspired Chris Williston requires the same sensitivity to myself as I am extending towards my kids. \u00a0It means opening my heart to hear the Holy Spirit. \u00a0It requires that I stop, listen to my heart and ask: What work am I doing when I feel most fully alive? \u00a0What projects and commitments are making a better servant of Christ? And, most importantly, what will help me fulfill the primary commitment of my vocation, sharing the love of Christ with my wife and kids, urging them towards heaven?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ok to have heroes, or people we just think are really amazing. \u00a0But, we can\u2019t focus so much on what others are doing to the point in which we forget that God has called us all to a unique brand of amazing. \u00a0\u00a0The ultimate goal is Christ-likeness, not Brandon-likeness, or [insert the name of your hero here]-likeness. \u00a0To do that, we have to figure out the gifts that God gave each of us to pursue that image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know you can\u2019t hear me sigh when I type these words, so you\u2019ll just have to imagine it. I am not Brandon Vogt. A couple of months back, I made the fortunate mistake of following Brandon Vogt on Facebook. For those who don\u2019t know who Brandon is, he\u2019s what I\u2019d call a celebrity. \u00a0Not… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[90,89,32],"tags":[824,55,51,276,348],"class_list":["post-18556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-faith-blog","category-family","category-social-media","tag-brandon-vogt","tag-catholic-2","tag-catholicism","tag-identity","tag-vocation","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t