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As the New Year begins and with Lent coming
up soon too,
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Desire
& Change|
Everyone knows those large, two litre, bottles of lemonade. At first, they are sparkling and refreshing to drink. But once they are half empty, they loose their fizz and become rather flat and unpalatable. Our Christian life can get much the same. When one experiences a first spiritual awakening one is full of enthusiasm for the things of the Spirit. But as the years pass, we often find we lose that first fervour. Complacency, carelessness and compromise creep in. It can happen in many ways. 1. For one reason or another, such as excessive extroversion and a lack of self-awareness, we lose touch with our spiritual desires. 2. We drop some of our spiritual practices, e.g. going to the sacrament of reconciliation or praying in tongues, or do so less often and with less sincerity and conviction. 3. Having lost touch with our deeper spiritual desires, we can start to replace them with other desires, e.g. pleasure, popularity and power. We start wanting nice things or success and influence. As a result we can end up knowingly tolerating a sinful attachment or practice in our lives. If we have become tepid in this way, it's worth reminding ourselves that the Lord said: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm- neither hot nor cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth" Rev 3:15-16. "RememberYour Spiritual Awakening" How can we stop disappointing the Lord in this manner? When I was thinking and praying about this question, two related texts came to mind. The first says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it" Jer 6:16. In the second the Lord says: "I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first" Rev 2:4-5. Both these verses encourage us to recall the deep and passionate desires that led us to form a deep personal relationship with Christ and to be guided by his Holy Spirit. "God Prompted Desires" Those desires were, and still are very important because there will be no blessing or renewal in our spiritual life without preceding desire. The stronger and deeper the desire the greater the subsequent blessings will be. So it is important that we recall the intensity of the longings that led to our new life in Christ. No matter how far we may have wandered from the straight and narrow, in the meantime, God will never revoke our call or withdraw its empowering graces. If, and when we turn back to the Lord, with all our heart, not only will we be blessed, it will be as if we had never strayed. New graces will be poured out upon us. Furthermore, we might ask ourselves, "what grace do I really want right now?" When we can answer that question, we will be in touch with the action of God's grace within us. As Paul perceptively observed: "it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" Phil 2:13. "One Thing Leads to Another" Once our Spirit prompted desire for deeper relationship with the Lord has been satisfied, we will also find we are motivated to renew our commitment to our spiritual practices. As a result we will be more likely, not only to spend more time in daily prayer, but also to do so in a disciplined, focused way. As our sense of relationship with God and the divine increases, we will find we are turning more easily away from those worldly and inappropriate desires and attachments that grieve the Holy Spirit. We will do this, not as a matter of cheerless duty, but as a result of heartfelt conviction. So if we want to put the spiritual fizz back into our lives, the question we would do well to answer, at this time of the year, is the one that the Lord addressed to two young men: "Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, 'What do you want?' " John 1:38.
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