For months, I've been praying for clarity and courage.

When I talked with Bishop Paprocki about this season of discernment, he emphasized something wise: keep clarity first. Courage without clarity is just recklessness. You need to know where you're going before you summon the nerve to go there, and you need reassurance it's from God.

Last week, I wrote about how I went to Disneyland by myself. Not for the rides - though I rode a few. I went because I needed space to think. To walk. To let something settle.

It settled.

Here's what had been frustrating me: I have all these pieces I've been working on: Emmaus Disciples, Deacon Life, Lead & Keep, the newsletter, the blog. Ideas for serving families, for serving deacons, for equipping parishes. Each one felt right on its own. But together? They felt scattered. Confusing. Too many things pointing in too many directions.

I kept wondering if I needed to cut some of them. Pick a lane. Simplify.

Then I realized something about Walt Disney.

Disney didn't build one thing. He built an ecosystem - movies that fed merchandise that fed theme parks that fed television that fed movies again. A flywheel where each piece strengthened the others. It only looked scattered if you couldn't see the hub at the center.

Walking through Disneyland, it clicked.

Even the parks are laid out in this way. Lands from yesterday to tomorrow, connected through a walking hub at the center.

My pieces aren't too many. They're disconnected. What I've been missing isn't subtraction - it's the connecting components, the unifying hub.

And suddenly I could see it: a formation house.

That phrase has been living in me for a while now.

When I left Adobe to join Exodus 90, part of what drew me was their vision to become "a formation house for Catholic men." That vision never fully materialized - and my time there ended in ways I've written about before, including a period of real depression as I processed it.

But the seed stuck. A formation house. A place that forms people in faith. Not a program, but a home. Not content, but formation.

What I realized at Disneyland is that I've been building toward that vision all along - just not for Catholic men alone. For the domestic church. For families. Across generations.

Youth being formed in faith. Families praying together. Elders deepening in the evening of life. Deacons supported in their ministry. Parishes equipped for evangelization. All of it connected. All of it feeding each other.

A formation house serving the domestic church across generations.

That's the hub. That's what holds it together.

The other clarity came from what I didn't feel.

I'd brought runDis Dad business cards and stickers to Disneyland. I thought I'd be energized to hand them out, to talk to other dads about running and Disney races.

I wasn't.

What I noticed instead: when I saw someone wearing a crucifix around their neck, or another outward sign of faith, I really wanted to tell them about what I'm building. The desire was visceral. I wanted to invite them into it.

That contrast was illuminating.

I'm still interested in runDis Dad - still want to help other dads get into running and into runDisney races with their kids. But I'm not meant to be the content creator covering race weekends. I want to experience those races, either solo like this trip or with my boys. Not document them.

The tell was this: I was more interested in helping Kellsie's Hope cheer on runners during the races I wasn't running than in promoting my own platform. That said something.

So now I have clarity.

And now I need courage.

I'm sitting here tearing at the skin at the base of my thumbnails - the thing I do when I'm nervous or anxious. Because this is a big leap and could mean a big change for Suzanne and me and our family. I'm building something real. A platform that connects these pieces. Infrastructure for a formation house that serves the domestic church.

The things you've heard me talking about - Emmaus Disciples, Deacon Life - they're pausing for a week or two while the unifying platform takes shape. Not abandoned. Integrated.

I'm excited. And I'm nervous. Both feel right.

If you've made it this far, I have one ask:

Please pray for me - especially for courage - as I build this.

I'm asking for the intercession of Saints Carlo Acutis, John Henry Newman, Francis de Sales, and Louis and Zélie Martin. If any of them are friends of yours too, I'd be grateful for their prayers alongside your own.

Clarity came at Disneyland, of all places.

Now comes the courage.

If this resonated with you, I'd be honored if you shared it with someone who might need to hear it.

Michael Halbrook is a Catholic deacon, husband, and father of four. He writes at DeaconMichael.net and sends a weekly email called Wednesday @ Lunch - reflections on faith, family, work, and life. Subscribe here.