Spiritual Development

Last night I attended the local college men's basketball game. We were dreadful. The visiting team "plays long" which means they are very tall on the court. We are not. When our whole team stood up I noticed that we had some very tall players, but they did not play. They sat on the bench the whole game. Why? They are not developed enough. They are tall enough for sure, but maybe too thin yet, or don't know enough of how to play the college paced game. In time they may develop enough physically and mentally to play well. They work on those aspects of their body and talent that need work. Who knows how much talent they still have, that just needs time?

The spiritual life of the soul needs time to develop. We have a soul, like a tall player has tallness. It is a given. We seem to develop early on the talent for talking to God, if we are a believer, and asking for things, or maybe thanking or praising God. If we work on the soul, we can later develop other talents, such as meditating on a passage in scripture, watching a sunset in silence and stillness. Eventually, we can even learn to develop the ability to sit in stillness believing God is present even if we feel nothing. But we have to work at all these layers of our soul. It won't come naturally, any more than a tall person will learn to play the "complete skills" of basketball. It takes daily effort with ups and downs. Soul work has a lot of temptations in the modern world with our gadgets and infinite capacity for diversion. What aspect of your spiritual game are you working on today?