My cousin E asked me how I felt after being Covenanted. I replied scared. Petrified, more like. I know full well my flaws and shortcomings, and how unworthy I am to aspire to greatness, and yet, to be a follower of Christ, mediocrity is so not an option.
People who know of my recent commitment have begun to hold me to a higher standard. Not unreasonable. I am holding me to a higher standard. So when I fall, it can be a little more painful.
Therefore I must remember that God does not require perfection. I will stumble and make mistakes every day, but as long as I remain humble and contrite, open to correction and change, I am good.
This ability to remain humble can only come from, no surprises, prayer as a discipline. I came across this meditation by Pope Benedict XVI from Saint Luke Productions and it holds within it the seeds of what I must do each day to help me steer True North.
THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH
It is important for the process of spiritual growth that you don't just pray and study your faith at times when it happens to cross your mind, when it suits you, but that you observe some discipline.
I should say, never begin with thinking alone, for if you try to pull God toward you in the laboratory of rational thought, and to attach him to you in what is to some extent a purely theoretical fashion, you find you can't do it.
You always have to combine the questions with action. Pascal once said to an unbelieving friend: start by doing what believers do even if it still makes no sense to you.
You can never look for faith in isolation, it is only found in an encounter with people who believe, who can understand you, who have perhaps come by way of a similar situation themselves; who can, in some way, lead you and help you. It is always among us that faith grows. Anyone who wants to go it alone has thus got it wrong from the very start.
It is easy to get complacent, sloppy, to slip into thinking I know it all and I am in control, that I do not need others - the almighty I. That frame of mind is a hop, skip and jump away from becoming inward looking and self-preserving. Better people than I have fallen so why should I be excluded?
The spiritual realm may be invisible but it is extremely alive and palpable in the actions of people. Whether I am motivated by God or something lesser, is a fine line both you and I tread, in every decision we make.
It is that serious a battle between choosing what is truly best for the other or what are self-serving desires dressed up as good Christian values; for the greater good or for my greater good. I do not pretend to always choose the former.
Perhaps today's Gospel from Mark (4:26-34) says it best:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,"
We must bow to the majestic mystery of God, even as we work as His sowers. And if we ourselves are sown in, and nourished by the soil of His Word and presence constantly, then even if we are a tiny mustard seed, we can aspire to become a plant that gives shade to birds in our large, leafy branches.
A good thought to hold onto as I celebrate the first day of the Lunar New Year today.
People who know of my recent commitment have begun to hold me to a higher standard. Not unreasonable. I am holding me to a higher standard. So when I fall, it can be a little more painful.
Therefore I must remember that God does not require perfection. I will stumble and make mistakes every day, but as long as I remain humble and contrite, open to correction and change, I am good.
This ability to remain humble can only come from, no surprises, prayer as a discipline. I came across this meditation by Pope Benedict XVI from Saint Luke Productions and it holds within it the seeds of what I must do each day to help me steer True North.
THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH
It is important for the process of spiritual growth that you don't just pray and study your faith at times when it happens to cross your mind, when it suits you, but that you observe some discipline.
I should say, never begin with thinking alone, for if you try to pull God toward you in the laboratory of rational thought, and to attach him to you in what is to some extent a purely theoretical fashion, you find you can't do it.
You always have to combine the questions with action. Pascal once said to an unbelieving friend: start by doing what believers do even if it still makes no sense to you.
You can never look for faith in isolation, it is only found in an encounter with people who believe, who can understand you, who have perhaps come by way of a similar situation themselves; who can, in some way, lead you and help you. It is always among us that faith grows. Anyone who wants to go it alone has thus got it wrong from the very start.
It is easy to get complacent, sloppy, to slip into thinking I know it all and I am in control, that I do not need others - the almighty I. That frame of mind is a hop, skip and jump away from becoming inward looking and self-preserving. Better people than I have fallen so why should I be excluded?
The spiritual realm may be invisible but it is extremely alive and palpable in the actions of people. Whether I am motivated by God or something lesser, is a fine line both you and I tread, in every decision we make.
It is that serious a battle between choosing what is truly best for the other or what are self-serving desires dressed up as good Christian values; for the greater good or for my greater good. I do not pretend to always choose the former.
Perhaps today's Gospel from Mark (4:26-34) says it best:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,"
We must bow to the majestic mystery of God, even as we work as His sowers. And if we ourselves are sown in, and nourished by the soil of His Word and presence constantly, then even if we are a tiny mustard seed, we can aspire to become a plant that gives shade to birds in our large, leafy branches.
A good thought to hold onto as I celebrate the first day of the Lunar New Year today.
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