Spiritual directors often speak of "resistances" to God's action in our lives. Sometimes it is unresolved conflicts from the past that seem to block our submitting ourselves to God. At other times, it is too much work , too much television or too much time in front of the computer. Perhaps because we want to be comforted all the time, we resist looking at what needs to be changed in our lives.
Part of my work demands that I spend time reflecting on the daily scriptures, researching areas with which I am not familiar and actually writing this blog or a homily, but the computer cannot be my life. Unless I take sufficient quiet time to remember God's enduring presence all around me, what I read, study and write will be like dry straw. Lacking a certain spirit, it will be unable to help lift people to God and urge them to live for God and do God's work. When they do this, they will be comforted.
Advent is a good time to examine our own commitment to faith and its practice. Have our prayers become routine, mumbled out of obligation quickly and with little heart? Has our inability to stop comparing ourselves to others impeded our own progress in the spiritual life? As Jesus reminds his hearers: the wisdom of following him will be vindicated by our good works. People will see in us the Christ who grounds us in hope or they will ignore our halfhearted attempts to appear religious.
Today, ask God to reveal how you resist his transforming Word.
Which of God's demands do you most often resist?
Today, ask God to reveal how you resist his transforming Word.
Which of God's demands do you most often resist?
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