Ignorance

 Ignorance usually precedes boasting.  We think we can do something we cannot.  The ignorance often hides our sense of fear or cowardice.  It hides our sense of self-preservation.  So we say we will accomplish this or do that, but when the time comes we renege.  Peter saying he would die for Jesus is a famous example.  A spiritual path will reveal that which hid in our darkness.  You face your real self not the false one you show to the public.  Recovery programs do this.  Through self-examination a person discovers their inventory of strength and weakness.  They ask for “courage” to change.  They do not assume they have built in courage.  Ignorance is anathema to recovery.  Meditation, thought by newbies to be soothing, often reveals to us stuff we did not know was there, the darkness that trips us up.  Alone, we can do nothing much against this ignorance.  So we seek a power that knows us and can help us.  

Who Leaves and Stays

 It seems that I try to leave God on a too regular basis.  Skip prayer for some “urgent” something, or too much agenda of good deeds to pray and meditate.  This is all about self-will and ego energy.  I am at the “should stage” in these moments.  I have enough sense to know I should not skip prayer, but do it anyway.  The Good News is that God does on leave me.  Maybe it is like my blogs.  You skip them for more urgent things, but I keep putting them out there.  

Living Together

 I don’t have to go very far to find ways to be of service, to be helpful right in my own home rectory here in San Francisco.  I live mostly with old men.  I am one of us.  I try not to leave things undone for someone else to come along and do what I did not do.  And when I find things not quite right, I try to fix, rearrange, make neat, without whining or judging.  If I can get through the day judgment free and whining free, it is a good day.  

A Daily Prayer

 A good daily prayer is to ask God, your Power, to show you some truth about yourself.  So you keep an even keel, you might be shown some defect of character that you ignore or don’t see in yourself.  This may come when you are judging others, or full of your own self-importance.  Or you might be shown something very good that you did not notice or forgot about yourself, when you are having a down time.  Trust God will keep you in balance.  It takes courage to want truth revealed about oneself.  Courage is to change the things I can.  

Personal Trainers

 Many people have personal trainers or belong to a group with a trainer.  You believe in the trainer and what good they can do and want for you.  Belief is not the issue once you find the trainer.  The problem is that you cannot get the trainer to do what you want.  Like what?  Days off from scheduled sessions for no good reason but a whim, or desire for some self-indulgence.  Fewer reps.  Skip some exercises you don’t like.  The trainer will have none of this.  You don’t control the trainer.  You can leave, quit, but not control.  God, Power, is like the trainer.  Many people believe in God, but their problem is that they cannot get God, Power to do what they want.  For many people, spiritual growth is not about belief issues.  It is about not wanting to put in the work.  

Cyrene Guy

 Do a good deed that you don’t want to do and then walk away with no thanks for it.  Just be an anonymous person who is helpful.  It will change your life for the better.  Simon of Cyrene was just passing by minding his own business.  Someone was stumbling by, all bloody from a beating, on the way to being crucified.  He was too weak to carry his cross.  Simon got pulled out from among the crowd of people and made to carry the cross beam.  When he was finished, he walked away.  No one said a thank you.  Maybe he grumbled, “Why me?”  But I suspect that he became a better person for it.  You don’t have to wait until you want to do a good deed.  

Glory

 Some of us are addicted dust.  That is, we are addicted to something, and will die someday still addicted.  But the addiction does not have to be the cause of death.  As Eric Vardon says, “We are dust called to glory.”  You can be addicted to work, exercise, food, sugar, demon rum, relationship-dependence but they don’t have to kill you.  We are dust.  We are human, therefore imperfect.  Accept it.  Humility.  Spiritual paths are not to make us perfect, but to make us whole, that is, all we are meant to be, dust called to glory.  Recovery, prayer, service, good reading, is all about dust moving to glory.