How am I called to make the world beautiful?
Introducing you to... Jimmy Mitchell
Over the next six posts, I want to feature the work of friends. When I look back at the last 20+ years of my life, I am shocked by the people the Lord has put into my life. Incredible people doing incredible things; people I’m humbled to say I even know. Some of these people you know, and other are more hidden. I’d like to introduce you to some of them now.
I always intended these articles to be an introduction to my friends; in writing them, I’ve found an excuse to dig a little deeper and find out more about myself, too. I suppose that’s what a great community does. You can tell a lot about someone by looking at the people with which they surround themselves, but you can also know more about yourself when you look at your friends–particularly those who stick around when it gets hard.
Like so many of these people I’ve written about over the last few weeks, I came to know Jimmy through our work in ministry. I’ve known him for fifteen years now, the longest of any of these relationships. I’ll make a confession right now - something he doesn’t even know.
I used to be jealous of Jimmy. It wasn't that awful sin of envy, where it consumed me and I resented him and I wanted terrible things to happen to him. (You’ll find a good Catholic discussion of envy here.) I just felt jealous twinges sometimes. I’d find out he was in Australia giving talks. I’d see him on the Steubenville conference website. I had tried to break into the Steubenville conference world and hadn’t been able to, but he had.
I wanted what he had.
You see, we had the privilege of living in Nashville before it was what it was today. The Nashville we lived in was small and up-and-coming. We had tourists, but they were mostly the buses that would roll in for the Grand Ole Opry, not the peddle-taverns of bridesmaids in matching pink cowboy hats. And we had Catholics, but we were small, building something new in the buckle of the Bible Belt. We all knew each other, and we were dreamers, innovators, and a bit of a motley crew. There were no Catholic celebrities going to Mass at the Cathedral (except the occasional Nicole Kidman sighting); just our own “celebrities” - cute boys, single doctors… you know the drill.
In that world, Jimmy was everywhere, involved in everything. If you heard of a new Catholic project in Nashville, you’d be shocked if you didn't hear Jimmy’s name connected to it. He had big dreams and big energy. He was fun to work with, too - I spoke at a few of his Glory Conferences (check out a young Joan here!). But as a fellow Catholic speaker, there was that little tick of jealous that happened occasionally.
The fact that pull doesn’t happen any longer says nothing about Jimmy’s trajectory over the last several years. He still speaks and dreams and does great things. In fact, he’s achieved something every Catholic writer probably dreams of–certainly something I’ve dreamed of: his name is written in a colored block on a spine of a book…. The tell-tale stripe on the spine of an Ignatius Press book. My bookshelf is full of those spines. And now one of them says “Mitchell.”
But when he handed me my copy, there was no twinge of jealousy. Just complete joy for a friend. Because he’s worked hard. He’s dreamed big. And if a tenth of Catholics had the passion in their hearts to do something for the Lord, we’d be in a different place in the Church.
Why was Jimmy everywhere, involved in everything back in those (no-pun-intended) glory days? Because he wanted to create beautiful things. He craved for a beautiful world, a world that recognized it was charged with the grandeur of God.
And it was so obvious to me, then and now, that he was constantly asking God what was next, where he wanted him, what soil was next for his mission ground. And God placed on his heart project after project which he pursued and loved and sold to anyone willing to listen.
These days, you’ll still find Jimmy on the speaking circuit and you'll still find him involved with his non-profit Love Good, but you’ll also find him mentoring the young men of Jesuit High School in Tampa. Those young man and that community is blessed to have him and his passion.
I think part of the reason I’m no longer jealous is that I’ve come to realize each one of us has a part to play in making this world beautiful. Each part will look different; that’s a big part of what makes the Body of Christ a healthy body. (Thanks, St. Paul!) How are we going to evangelize the world? By showing the world the joy, the beauty, the goodness of living life to the fullest.
That’s not gained by wishing we had someone else’s opportunities. That’s gained by seizing the opportunities God has given us, living them to the best of our ability, and then turning around and telling our story. That’s what Jimmy’s done. That’s what we must do.
Jimmy’s book is full of stories of the power of beauty – but it’s not just a lofty, pie-in-the-sky, rose-colored-glasses view of life. It’s practical and real, a challenge to find the beauty that is in our lives and to do what we can to make the world more beautiful.
I love what my friend Mike said about his book: “For more than a century we've labored to build a city that's noisy and ugly — and boring us to death. If you suspect there's something better, follow that hunch through the pages of this book. You'll find not just something beautiful, but the Way of Beauty itself.”
You’ve been given gifts and talents and opportunities. Let’s go let beauty speak.
One of my favorite parts of leading pilgrimages is the opportunity for people to come face-to-face with staggering beauty - art, architecture, countryside. It’s not that we don’t have that beauty here, but while on the journey of pilgrimage, your heart and soul are dilated a bit to help you see and receive things in a different way.
If you’re interested in encountering beauty on pilgrimage - the peace of the Loca do Cabeço in Fatima, the majestic Gothic architecutre of Batalha, the holiness and history of Avila and Zaragoza- join me this June!
For more information, visit https://versoministries.com/departures/marian-pilgrimage-june-2024/. I’d love to experience this beauty with you!
What a beautiful question to pose. God calls each of us to shine with our own unique talents!