A Commitment our future selves will be proud of

Joel and I met with Father Zac back in May to discuss the campaign and I will confess I had a “Father of the Bride” movie moment. I’ll explain… Cut to the scene where George Banks looks at Annie across the table, though instead of seeing his daughter as the adult she is, he sees her as a 6-year-old explaining how she met the most wonderful man and is getting married.

Believe it or not Father Zac, this was the movie reel in my mind during our meeting, where I saw myself as a 6-year-old version of me being asked to make a rather significant and sacrificial gift to the church and feeling unequipped and certainly not “adult” enough for this level of responsibility and decision making. As perhaps some of you can relate, Joel and I have had several of these moments over the years where we wondered if we were really ready for the opportunities the world was presenting to us… our first mortgage, having kids (having 3 kids), and now financial gift giving.

Thankfully, we were able to come to terms with reality, and seriously consider this ask. Like you all… St. Mark’s is a second home to us, it is a central piece of our belonging in Austin, our children were baptized here… I could go on, though I will spare you all the details of our story for when and how we fell in love with this place and exactly what it means to us. Not because it isn’t a good story, but because you already have yours, and that is the story that matters and takes up space in your heart.

And if I am honest, this connection and belonging is not why we made the choice to give to this campaign. It was only table stakes for us considering it 

So why did we give? To answer that I will have to confess something…  I have a personal mantra. I know it may sound cheesy or trite but it’s true. And I recite it in my mind almost daily for matters big and small…

That mantra is… do something your future self will be proud of. This is often what gets me in my hot garage gym to work-out when I would rather float in the pool. It is also what encourages me to brush my teeth when I would rather just stumble into bed after falling asleep on the sofa. And ultimately it is what guided our decision for a sacrificial gift. 

I won’t lie, we did consider the frivolous or otherwise “necessary” things we could have done in lieu of this gift, though none of which would we look back on in the same way.

So we sent Fr. Zac our campaign pledge in a very formal way, via text message, of course. And what surprised us is that we realized our “future selves” showed up sooner than we expected. A sense of pride began to grow immediately after committing our pledge. And I know this pride will grow and evolve well into the future as we experience various milestones… when we break ground on the construction, when we enter the completed church grounds for the first time, when (and now I am dreaming so bear with me) though when our kids someday get married here or baptize their kids here.

And yes, we are still coming to terms with this level of “adulting” all at a time when we are still establishing ourselves financially, raising three young kids, planning for school tuition, and so on.

Though ultimately, we are grateful to St. Marks and each of you for making this place fitting for a sacrificial gift and for giving us the opportunity to contribute toward something so meaningful for which we are truly proud to take part.