The message is right there in the video. But this is an additional reflection I wrote, based on what I said in this video.

From Episode:

The Gathering Storm - Ep. #49
Catholics, the storm isn’t coming—it’s already here. I’m talking about traditionalism gone off the rails, bishops making troubling statements, and a culture shaping us in ways Catholics don’t notice
Fire Branded by TJ HainesTJ Haines

A lot of Catholics are worn out right now. There's enough going on in the world and in our households to wear anyone down. But Catholics can feel worn down in a different way—the faith itself sometimes feels dry like a desert. The culture isn't what it was. The preaching isn't always as clear as we need. There's confusion in the Church that spills out into the world around us.

If you've got any age on you, you can sense this as acutely as I do—the Church doesn't "feel" the way it used to, or, if you're a younger Catholic, the way we were told it once did. But what you're feeling is a desert, and a desert isn't a verdict on your faith—it's a season you're meant to cross. This rough stretch isn't pointless. It's fruitful, and it's by God's design.

Hard seasons in the faith do something to you. They burn off the "stuff" you were leaning on, but that God wants you to learn how to do without. It might be nostalgia, habits, preferences. Things that aren't bad in an of themselves, but they're baggage. Hard seasons force you to shed, to grow, and to discover something new. You don't come out of a season like that the same. You come out stronger, harder to knock over. That's the whole point of it. God brings a person—or a people—through those seasons because he's preparing you for something.

The mistake is trying to make yourself comfortable instead of letting the season do its work. People do this in a couple of ways. Some retreat into a familiar corner. Others build a little world of their own—a certain era, a certain style, a set of preferences—and live inside of it. Like "pitching a tent in the desert" as I said in the video. It can look devout and authentic from the outside. But what if it really isn't? What if it's an escape from something the Lord wants to subject you to, for your good? What if those comfort spaces, those familiar corners, that tent in the desert is helping you to skip the very thing that would have made you stronger?

The better road is the unfamiliar one. The one that's least comfortable. It's often harder on us precisely because God wills it for us. But don't make yourself comfortable. Don't set up camp and call it home. A faith that's been through something and kept going is worth more than one that's been kept comfortable its whole life. There's something on the other side of this. You only get there by walking.