CoC-Ep 19-4 reasons you need a coach

Catholics on campus need a Catholic coach for several reasons. Firstly, they are on the front lines of the spiritual battlefield and face constant challenges to their faith. Secondly, many campuses have secular influences that make it difficult for Catholics to find their place. Thirdly, moral relativism is prevalent on college campuses and goes against Christian beliefs. Lastly, attending college is a significant investment, so it makes sense to seek support for success. A Catholic coach can help develop tools to navigate these challenges and strengthen one's faith. Moral relativism has been around since ancient times, and it is important to understand its implications. William Perry's scheme of intellectual and cognitive development is influential in higher education, but it promotes a perspective that contradicts Catholic teachings. It is crucial to be aware of these ideas and seek guidance from reliable sources like Bishop Robert Barron. you welcome back in this episode I am going to address a question I get a lot why do Catholics on campus need a Catholic coach today I will discuss the top four reasons to invest in a coaching experience here's the top four reasons that you could benefit here's the top four reasons you could benefit from a coaching experience number one Catholics on campus are at the front lines of the spiritual battlefield Catholics on campus are at the front lines of the spiritual battlefield number two many campuses even some founded on a Catholic tradition have highly secularized influences from faculty staff and students that make it difficult for Catholics on campus to find their place number three moral relativism abounds on college campuses today and it's starkly opposed to our Christian beliefs and lastly attending college is an expensive investment in your future so why not set yourself up for success all right so let's let's take a deeper dive into each of these to unpack all right so let's take a deeper dive to unpack each of these reasons and understand how you can benefit from a coaching experience from a Catholic perspective okay so the first reason Catholics on campus with all their potential are at the front lines of the spiritual battlefield John 844 calls the enemy a liar and the father of lies the enemy works non-stop to get people to lift their gaze from Jesus the enemy sows division and creates conflict to undermine love and faith in God the enemy encourages despair and hopelessness by amplifying feelings of guilt shame and worthlessness the enemy also tries to convince you that you are beyond God's mercy and forgiveness when the enemy convinces someone that their desires and ego matter pride arrogance and lack of humility take over and distance that person from humility and right judgment so it takes a lot of effort to untangle this mess of lies half-truths and ill intent that Catholics face every day in our society simply put the enemy seeks to destroy us as Peter 5 8 reminds us your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour depending on your temperament you may respond to the enemy's attacks on your mind by showing up in less virtuous ways clerics may be stubborn opinionated and argumentative sanguins may show up as restless disorganized or impulsive melancholics may be moody overly cautious or pessimistic and people with a phlegmatic temperament may appear disinterested fearful or apathetic none of these tendencies enable you to show up in a Christlike manner that leans into your natural gifts when this happens the enemy will have you right where he wants you the battle for your soul is non-stop and requires constant self-awareness support and fortitude a Catholic coach can help you develop or sharpen these tools a Catholic coach can help you develop or sharpen the tools you need to win the battle for your mind number two many campus cultures are highly secularized and influenced by diverse perspectives of faculty students and staff that make it difficult for Catholics on campus to find a sense of belonging students with traditional Catholic values may have trouble connecting with like-minded individuals to practice simple things like praying before meals attending mass or observing meatless Fridays many Catholic many campuses host a variety of student organizations that encourage points of view contrary to the Catholic faith or they just frankly promote paganism the simple act of walking across campus or participating in a class discussion can present Catholics on campus with points of view that question our beliefs these experiences these experiences can stir up all kinds of thoughts such as if I make a mistake I fear everyone is going to jump down my throat or no one understands me or this is too unpleasant I am just going to keep my thoughts to myself or that negative self-talk of I feel stupid overcoming these negative thoughts can be difficult it takes time effort and skill a coach can help you strengthen your thought work muscles so that you can create space between your feelings thoughts and actions remember God wants you to be bold and courageous boldness was one of the first characteristics of the Holy Spirit boldness was one of the first characteristics the Holy Spirit imparted after Jesus ascended into heaven. Acts 2 tells us that the followers of Jesus emerged from hiding to become fearless preachers. Acts 2 429 says as the disciples faced persecution from authorities they prayed for boldness it goes on to say prayer their prayers were answered it goes on to say their prayers were answered and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word with boldness God gives us boldness because God gives us boldness along with the virtues of humility and magnanimity working with a working with a Catholic coach can help you connect your Catholic working with a Catholic coach can help you connect Christian teachings to the challenges you face today and find inspiration for your own boldness number three I'm going to kind of go off on a tangent here but I do want to get into some detail more relativism abounds on college campuses today it's easy to forget that moral relativism has been around since ancient Greek times Protagoras who was an ancient Athenian teacher is famous for the dictum that says man is a measure of all things today we hear students say things like it's all good or you do you it's the idea that each person decides who they are and who they will be the enemy is relentless as he opens the door for us to question the idea that there are no absolute truths and that moral decisions are purely subjective for example is it an absolute truth that a fetus will grow into a baby and a baby grows into a human adult it's certainly an inconvenient truth for some people but you don't have to be a theologian philosopher ethicist to comprehend that there is a slippery slope if you deny this particular truth where can you draw the line between good and evil when some on campus believe in a spouse of moral acts and a spouse that moral acts are not by their nature good or evil so listen up my psych majors so listen up my psych majors I think you'll appreciate this next part a popular student development theory that I learned in grad school and again 20 years later when I completed my doctorate it's called William Perry's scheme of intellectual and cognitive development I'll explain what exactly that is in a moment but as I do I want you to keep in mind this is a I want you to keep in mind that a major limitation of this 15 year study conducted in the 1950s and 1960s was that Perry's subjects were white male Harvard University students and it was not a sample population representative of all college students nonetheless his scheme became the foundation of a variety of student development theories that are used on college campuses today so in his scheme he said that intellectual and cognitive development had four stages of growth dualism multiplicity relativism and commitment within relativism and that they were subdivided into nine positions he described the dualistic beliefs as those that are either good or he described the dualistic he described the dualistic beliefs as those that are true or false good or evil think of it as black or white thinking he promoted dualism as a lowest level of intellectual and cognitive development on the other end of this development spectrum was the stage of relativism where all beliefs are considered equally valid the final stage intellectual the final stage of intellectual and cognitive development a development stage that he said everyone should aspire to included a commitment of values and beliefs the final stage of intellectual and cognitive development a developmental stage everyone should aspire to included a commitment to values and beliefs that matter to the individual when I was in graduate school I was learning this for the first time and I wasn't Catholic at the time but it really kind of there's something about it that didn't sit well with me and I couldn't put my finger on what it was until recently I realized that the part about the dualistic beliefs as the lowest level it was I realized it was the part about dualistic beliefs as the lowest level of development there was an expectation that young people would automatically grow into relativism and release themselves of dualistic or good and bad thinking there was an expectation that young people would automatically grow in relativism and release themselves from the dualistic thinking Bishop Robert Barron called this perspective the culture of self-invention in which everything from sexuality to gender human nature or moral systems is a social construct. I'm quoting him there. Moral relativism goes against our Catholic faith and is based on assertions of the number moral relativism goes against our Catholic faith and is based on assertions of a number of atheistic philosophers if you'd like to know more about this I've linked to my if you'd like to know more about this I've linked to Robert Barron's important publication in the show notes it's called ideas have consequences the philosophers who shaped our culture and he did this in 2023 there's also a really good YouTube video on his talk if you prefer to listen to it I highly recommend that you read or listen to his teachings especially if you are studying the social sciences or education where these ideas undergird so much of what you may be taught I hope I haven't I hope I haven't I hope I haven't taken you down too much of a rabbit hole but I really want to make the point that now 40 or 50 years later this perspective is widespread throughout American higher education even if most of even if most of you would not recognize the connection of William Perry and his scheme of intellectual and cognitive development his theory is highly influential people are dualistic people who are considered dualistic less people who are dualistic are considered less mature than those who are relativistic the stage of multiplicity encourages people to trust their inner voice not external authorities put another way everyone has a right to their own opinions from a Catholic perspective the culture of self-invention counters everything we know about God as the ultimate creator the culture of self-invention weakens spiritual warfare and presupposes that there is no God I'll end this section with a description of Bishop Barron I'll end this section with something Bishop Barron brings up in his talk where he talks about Friedrich Nietzsche having influenced the critical having influenced current thinking rooted in the belief that God is dead and we killed him in some Bishop Barron says if we reject the belief that God is if we reject the belief that God is the source of all objective truth and objective moral value then we are left with what Nietzsche calls perspectivism that is all perspectives are valued and there are millions of them for Catholics on campus staying true to the Catholic perspective takes time and extra energy you coach can help you make sense of the challenges you face in the highly secularized campus environment and lastly number four of my four reasons for and finally number four of my four reasons why you could benefit from a Catholic coach this reason has to do with the fact that college is expensive so why should call it so why should Catholic college students struggle unnecessarily according to educationdata.org the average cost of college in the United States is $38,270 per student per year including books supplies and daily living expenses if you add that up it's over $153,000 for four years of course there's plenty of ways to trim the costs but keep in mind on the high end some private schools are running over $500,000 for four years I say all this to say pursuing a college degree is expensive and about 40 percent of college students drop out of college before even finishing their degrees and three quarters of college dropouts are first generation students again keep in mind the enemy does not want you to succeed in college or any aspect of your life he will strike at your self-confidence and discourage you every chance he gets I've worked on college campuses long enough to know that temptations abound underage drinking alcohol abuse sex illegal drugs gambling or disordered eating all of this resulting from or country or all of this resulting from or contributing to low self-confidence and other negative habits distract from your god-given potential student employment while hugely necessary for some is another factor that affects graduation rates additionally concern for mental health is on the rise so students and let's be honest college faculty and staff face many fears fear of difficulty fear of missing out fear of failure fear of what others will think and fear of overwhelming anger or anxiety these fears bubble up with nagging thoughts like people will see and laugh at me I have no control over it it just happens this panic attack will never end or I'll never graduate I should just quit now we all have moments of sorrow and distress remember Jesus's agony in the garden although he experienced a wide range of emotions including frustration that his disciples could not keep watch with him for one hour he surrendered to God when he said my father if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it your will be done the catholic coach can help you to learn to integrate the negative thinking that chips away at your self-esteem and enable you to fight the enemy in highly effective ways so let's summarize the ways that you can benefit from coaching from a catholic perspective one a coach can help you to strengthen your thought work muscles so that you can create space between your feelings thoughts and actions and align your thoughts closer to the God and align your thoughts closer to God two a coach can help you to learn to integrate the negative thinking that you two a coach can help you learn to interrogate the negative thinking you have so that you can easily and consistently fight off daily attacks from the enemy three a coach can help you to cultivate your self-awareness and increase your virtuous habits so that you are equipped to win the battle for your mind and lastly four a coach can help you to connect your christian teachings to the challenges you face and find inspiration to live your life more abundantly the bottom line is every catholic on campus needs someone in their corner to help them smooth out the knots and on that tangle their think to help them smooth out the knots that tangle their thinking provide them with easy to access tools and encourage them to achieve their goals as king as saint Catherine of Siena reminds us be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire that's all I have for you today my friends if you enjoyed this episode please like and follow my podcast if you haven't done so already and share it with a friend if you have any suggestions for future podcast topics or any questions about this episode feel free to reach out to me through my website knots-untied.com until next time my friends merry untire of knots pray for us God bless you you