I don’t claim to know what any individual is called to do. What I can tell you is that on His mountain, God wants you to scale the heights. Each peak is a different vocation, and every person on earth is called to scale one. Only you can discern which. Our discernment is tested in our choices, and our choices strengthen or weaken our discernment. Your choices don’t just affect who you turn out to be, they affect your ability to discern who God calls you to be. Every moment of your life, in every moral choice you’ve ever had to make, God has been calling you by name, asking you to choose wisely. Those who choose wisely follow God higher and higher up a mountain, drawing closer to Him who draws the hearts of all men. Those who choose foolishly turn from God and descend into a pit of their own digging. Often, they hit rock bottom. If you’re one of those who’s hit rock bottom, I’ve got good news for you: At least now you recognize where you are. Can you see the sunlight up above you? Start climbing toward it. That upward crawl is a tough one, but if you want to start scaling the heights, you’ve got to get out of the pit. If you want to know which peak God wants you on, you’ve got to get better at discerning. That means getting better at listening for and choosing God’s will. Here are a few things you can do to get out of that pit faster: Pray. If you’re in a pit, the first thing you have to do is look up and find the sun. The source of all our spiritual light is God, and so we must raise our eyes to Him in prayer, gaze upon Him in adoration, draw close to Him in meditation. Confess. Once you’ve found the light, you need to climb. It’s not easy. The way ahead is arduous and fraught with difficulty. It requires courage. It requires resolution. “I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace…” Confession is that all-important first step. You can do it. Make it a good one. Be thorough. Study your faith. Knowing the faith might have prevented you from digging the pit in the first place, so it can surely help you get out. The truth of the Incarnation raises your dignity. It’s a foothold in depths of sin. The truth of the Cross inspires hope. A thousand others give you the strength to dig your fingers in the mud and pull toward the light. Put selflessness into practice. Each selfish choice digs another shovel-load deeper into our pits. Each selfless choice reaches out and pulls us up. When we make selfish choices, our eyes get fixated on ourselves and we miss so many opportunities to live for others. If you go through life proactively looking out for those opportunities to choose what’s good for others over what’s good for you, you’ll start to see the people God is calling you to serve. Receive the sacraments. Grace gives us strength. If you want the strength to climb out of the pit, grace is one thing you’ll certainly need. The sacraments impart grace and strengthen the soul in the performance of a charitable life. Breathe in the Holy Spirit. We need to breathe in good air if we wish to succeed in any physical undertaking. In Hebrew, the word for breath – ruah – is the same as the word for Spirit. The Holy Spirit is often called “the forgotten Person of the Holy Trinity,” and with good cause. We often neglect to incorporate Him into our prayers and our spiritual lives. We must remember to take him into our souls as we take air into our lungs, a fresh breath in the midst of so much spiritual and moral pollution. If we want to scale the heights, we must first dig out of pits we make for ourselves. Then, the lungs of our souls filled with fresh air, we may begin our trek toward the Mountain of the Lord. NAMASTE 384
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:16:40 +0000
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