Saint Francis

I love the prayer attributed to Saint Francis. I especially love the parts where it is not what you get but what you give that matters. I also love his insight that it is in dying that we are born to the greater reality of eternal life. I think I love him because he walked on the wild side like me and eventually found that the real peace is found in God not in wine, women, and song. It's not as if I don't like a good time, it's not as if I don't want a laugh or a dance or a song, I love those things. What I have found is that they are just not enough when I compare them to the knowledge of the love of God and the peace that this creates. I'm also in some ways moving more toward a better person. I'm not finished but I'm not the man that Marsha married. I'm a much more patient , kind and gentle man than in any of those early years. I don't have the marks of the crucifixion on my hands and feet like Saint Francis, and I never stripped naked to run down main street while renouncing all my worldly goods, but I have changed my life focus. Somehow our culture clutches to the love of animals part of the story of Saint Francis and ignores the gentle peaceful poverty part of his witness and call. In many ways I can't understand how Saint Francis is so popular in our culture. When Marsha and I married we had so many plans to be wealthy and to have everything. We certainly changed our values as the years went by. I'm no Saint Francis but I have moved in that direction and I love him as a role model and his values as a goal.