Mission: Mark

Well…as you know, I have the Mark Wahlberg obsession. I know he’s in town filming a movie right now, with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Russell Crowe. I also know that he has gone to St. Patrick’s church on Camp St. Those two things being known, I decided that I was going to find him. Hence, Mission: Mark.

Sidenote: This brings me back to my high school years when I had a huge crush on Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit (don’t judge me, I *loved* him and loved that band) and I was on a mission to find him, as well. That story turned out to be one of the most depressing days of my teenage years. Long story short, he was in town on this tour thing to find a new guitarist for the band. I was there, he was having people come on the tour bus to talk to him, sign stuff…I basically got to where there was TWO other people in front of me, then me…and his manager came out and said they had to go and I sadly watched the bus drive away. :( I could have cried. I mean, SO close, yet so far away.

ANYWAY…yesterday, I went to St. Patrick’s for mass. I had a rough Sunday night and Monday I was sort of needing some Jesus time, for sure, anyway. I found the church and I walked into just quaint majesty. I say quaint, because it’s a huge cathedral sort of church, but, it’s so much smaller than the normal church I go to for daily mass, St. Joseph. As I was sitting, eyes sort of half turned towards the back looking for Mark (hey, can’t forget the mission…sorry, Lord), I did get hit in the head by Lord. Gotta love that.

When I was sitting and praying, you slowly see just people come into the church. People of all sorts…businessmen, people with kids, older people, and it hit me right then. I’m sitting here waiting for Mark, but yet, Mark is just like me. It really hit me that we all, even though we’re sitting far apart, with pews of space in between, we’re really all there for one purpose, and that’s to seek God and give him glory and honor and praise, or to find solace in his gentle voice and love. When I think about Mark and him being on television and movies and all of that, it sort of all goes out the window once we think about Christ. We truly are all brothers and sisters in Christ. None of us have any more power than the other. The president could be sitting beside me at mass, and Jesus wouldn’t love him any more than he loved me. The world’s most richest man in the world could be two pews behind me and it wouldn’t matter, either. Mark Wahlberg--actor, producer, superstar--is even with me--regular old Linzi with the admin job that no one understands--when he turns his eyes to God.

I sit here and think about something Mark Hart said in a book once. He said in the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, that what we need to remember, right then, is truly that he is ‘OURS.’ He loves none of us more or less and we all pray the same prayer to the same Father that shows us all love, mercy, and compassion. It is in that first line that we remember, we are truly all the same.

Thank, you, Lord, for showing me that. But, don’t worry, I am still on Mission: Mark. I just now have a little different perspective about the two of us. I think more than ever, it just shows, he could be my next bffer. Just sayin’… ;)