Author Archive for Mike Eisenbath

Mike Eisenbath has been married to Donna for 30 years; they have four adult children and two grandsons. He was an award-winning sportswriter for 23 years, including 18 at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch with duties that included covering the St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball. Severe depression forced him out of that career. He continues to write, with a monthly column in the St. Louis Review and his www.eisenbath.com website featuring reflections on topics such as his Catholic faith and mental illness. Mike is a frequent speaker and radio guest involving those subjects. Among his three books is Hence My Eyes Are Turned Toward You: Confronting Depression With Faith and the Prayer of Jehoshaphat.

Take A Friend On The Journey
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Take A Friend On The Journey

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by on Jul 15, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Men, Those in Need
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A March weekend in 2005 has affected my life as profoundly as almost any other event. Not only did my two-day experience improve the quality of my life, it probably saved my life. Numerous times. I gained a true understanding about the invaluable importance of making my spiritual journey with companions. And to think it […]

True Strength: Fully Rely on God
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True Strength: Fully Rely on God

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by on Jul 08, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Health & Fitness, Live in Christ
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Like many first-born children, I’m a good rules-follower. Unless I suspect danger to my physical or spiritual well-being, I will do what I’m told by people who love me or the people who somehow make or enforce the rules. So I always have been a pretty good “kneeler” in church. By that, I mean that […]

Reluctantly Seeking Humility
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Reluctantly Seeking Humility

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by on Jul 01, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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During the last several months, I have felt a distinct and powerful calling to obtain and embrace a certain virtue. It has led me to daily reciting a certain prayer to the point of writing it on my heart. I have found it one of the most difficult prayer devotions I ever have attempted. The […]

Let's Fall in Love
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Let’s Fall in Love

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by on Jun 24, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured
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Some things make you feel just a little more alive. Hearing a moving song. Helping someone in need. Reading words that make you cry. Seeing a sunset splash the sky with breath-taking colors. And the feeling is multiplied immeasurably if you are sharing those experiences with someone special. Indeed, love completes us as human beings. […]

A Mission: "Be Jesus Today"
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A Mission: “Be Jesus Today”

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by on Jun 19, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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A sticky note on the bottom of my computer monitor at work features three simple words, but a powerful command: Be Jesus Today If I have a consistently whispered “mantra,” that’s it. I say it to myself every morning. The note reminds me of my personal desire throughout the workday. At night, as I reflect […]

Answering Some Vital Questions
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Answering Some Vital Questions

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by on Jun 10, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, Music, On the Job
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Where do you go when it starts to rain? That and some related “musical questions” have been playing over and over in my mind for the last few months. They have made for some interesting soul-searching. For me, the self-examination began on the road. I have to take three business trips annually, all to Kansas […]

A Simple Prayer, A Simple Peace
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A Simple Prayer, A Simple Peace

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by on Jun 03, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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On a retreat some years ago, several of us were spending time in prayer together. Each man in the circle took a turn at sharing with God and the rest of us in the group an intention or request or thought that was weighing on his heart and mind. There was talk of family members […]

Eternity: A Special Woman's Journey Home
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Eternity: A Special Woman’s Journey Home

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by on May 27, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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On Tuesday morning (May 19), a few hours before my mom, Madge Eisenbath, underwent brain surgery, I went to 7 o’clock Mass at my home Catholic church. I knew my family was in for a challenging time, so there was no better way to prepare. Little did I know … In the first Scripture reading, […]

There Will Be Much Rejoicing
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There Will Be Much Rejoicing

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by on May 20, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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There is so much suffering. Homeless men, women and even countless children on the sidewalks of our cities. … Refugees from war-torn Syria and numerous African countries. … Immigrants fleeing dangerous circumstances in Central America and risking everything to sneak into the United States. … People whose lives are turned upside-down by drug abuse – […]

The Power of the Spirit
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The Power of the Spirit

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by on May 13, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” With those words to the apostle Thomas, Jesus bestowed a wonderful blessing upon all of those disciples who chose to follow him yet never actually heard him preach a sermon or saw him heal a leper. While walking the earth, our Lord had contemporaries whom […]

Jesus, May You Increase
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Jesus, May You Increase

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by on May 06, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Evangelization, Featured, Vocations
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Billboards around St. Louis recently are showing a new advertising slogan for a franchise of gyms: “What Will Be Your Legacy?” Nothing against people who enjoy working out and lifting weights — which I should do more often — but my idea of a real legacy to leave my family and friends has nothing to […]

Take Those You Love to Jesus
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Take Those You Love to Jesus

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by on Apr 28, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Does the Bible still have relevance? All that guidance and those stories of 2,000 years ago and longer – do they mean anything today? They should, of course – especially the things Jesus taught. Loving God with every fiber of your being, loving your neighbor as you love yourself, forgiving countless times. Laying down your […]

Enjoying My Peaceful Place
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Enjoying My Peaceful Place

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by on Apr 21, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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I have many ways to begin prayer, with numerous different motivations. Lately, God has been providing a certain motivation without my consciously asking for it. Ultimately, it’s almost always about finding peace. Before I get to that, let me share some of the ways I like to pray. There are times when I wish to […]

Would You Lay Down Your Life for Them?
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Would You Lay Down Your Life for Them?

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by on Apr 14, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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I have more than 1,100 friends on Facebook. Are they all really my friends? Fair question. My wife and children frequently voice their doubts that I even know that many people, much less can call that many people friends. My family has challenged me with this: “How many of those people, if they died, would […]

Our God is a Mighty God
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Our God is a Mighty God

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by on Apr 07, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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I love silence. I crave it sometimes, especially in a world that seems filled with noise 24/7. Radios and TVs, alarm clocks and iPods, CD players and Youtube, telephones and cell phones and people talking-talking-talking wherever we go. It can be a challenge to hear God’s voice over all of that noise. We might try […]

Do Small Things with Great Love
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Do Small Things with Great Love

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by on Apr 03, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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The older I get, the more time I spend enduring medical exams and “procedures.” Never willing to waste time, I often pray in my moments alone while waiting. I’m also fond of chatting up and observing people. That can provide flashes of grace. Recently, I was laying on a hospital bed in expectation of being […]

Devoted to Hearing His Voice
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Devoted to Hearing His Voice

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by on Mar 24, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Vocations
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Not long ago, I did an exercise in which four words were listed horizontally and I had to rank them as they applied to me by giving a “4” to the one most descriptive of myself down to “1” for the least descriptive of me. For example, the first list of words was: independent, compassionate, […]

Another Step in a Spiritual Journey
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Another Step in a Spiritual Journey

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by on Mar 17, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Men, Parenting, Vocations
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God guided me into the next step of my spiritual journey recently. I was accepted into formation with the St. Louis, Mo., group of the Secular Carmelites. I’m excited. I have my heart and soul open for what might be ahead. I recently completed my year of “aspirancy” with the Secular Carmelites. That stage involved […]

Making a Powerful, Deep Examination
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Making a Powerful, Deep Examination

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by on Mar 09, 2015 in Catechesis, Evangelization, Featured
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You know, there are some really cool things about Jesus. For one, he was the Son of God. How awesome is that?! There’s more, though. He was a man. A dude. Like me. Well, kind of like me. Actually, He wasn’t really very much like me — but He hung around a lot of guys […]

A Way Everyone Should Pray
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A Way Everyone Should Pray

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by on Mar 03, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured
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Every once in a while, I catch a glimpse of what Jesus felt at times. For instance, I can understand a little of what he must have been thinking when his disciples asked: “Lord, teach us to pray.” He could have responded with amazement: “How can you not know how to pray? I have been […]

How to Make Heaven Rejoice
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How to Make Heaven Rejoice

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by on Feb 24, 2015 in Catechesis, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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The silence truly had been golden. I hadn’t heard or spoken many words for a couple of days — save for at the Liturgy of the Hours in the chapel. The immersion in the silence had been one of the most special, holiest gifts I could receive. That had been one of the overriding reasons […]

Jesus, If You But Said the Word...
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Jesus, If You But Said the Word…

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by on Feb 17, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Do you ever want simply to “be better” from something … from any thing? It could be something that ails you, such as cancer or diabetes or endometriosis, heart disease or asthma or some other chronic health condition. It could be an addiction – to smoking or drinking alcohol, drugs or food or pornography. It […]

Ask, Seek, Knock -- Your Gift Awaits
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Ask, Seek, Knock — Your Gift Awaits

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by on Feb 10, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Uncategorized
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I always have been taught that faith is a gift. And who doesn’t love receiving gifts – especially if it is the perfect gift, something sorely needed, something for which we have asked? That could be faith in anything, I suppose: faith in your family’s helping when times get tough, faith in being justly rewarded […]

A Need We All Have
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A Need We All Have

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by on Feb 03, 2015 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Education, Evangelization, Featured, Those in Need
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I love music. I love good music. I really love great music. But it truly is in the ear of the beholder as to what makes good or great music, isn’t it? I mean, I love The Allman Brothers; many people don’t like the bluesy sound and long jams. I love the work of the […]