On the go. This seems to be the motto these days for me. It seems like I’m running here, running there, always on the go to get something done.
But you know, every time I begin to be like that, I find that prayer becomes more difficult, life becomes less satisfying, I am more distracted, everything becomes more stressful … I bet you know what I am talking about.
As I thought about this, I began to notice that not only was I always running, but I was running away. Away from God, away from realities I didn’t want to face, away from confrontations. My getting ramped up in activity had really been related to a flight from reality.
As I had a coffee one morning, I thought, “How did this happen? What started my running? What’s the first step in stopping it?” I decided I would bring this into prayer.
Later that day, I entered Dunkin Donuts for my second coffee of the day. As I waited in line, I looked up at the menu, and facing me squarely in huge purple and orange lettering were the words: “gets you running, keeps you running”.
Coffee! I had started drinking a lot of coffee again. I thought about it and it seemed clear: no more Dunkin Donuts. No more caffeine. That’s it.
I gave away my Dunkin Donuts cards. No more. Done.
Now, I am not as distracted as before. I can concentrate better, think more clearly, pray better, and act more decisively.
“And if your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you having one eye to enter into life than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” (Mt 18:9)
Is there something in your life that is drawing you away from God, from your most important relationships and responsibilities? Look for it, and when you find it, don’t play around with it. Don’t hesitate. Just quickly and firmly follow Our Lord’s call:
Pluck it out.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Gabrielle // May 26, 2008 at 8:15 am
This is a good reminder too, Jerome, that something that starts out as an innocent, temporary help (like a few too many coffees to keep you going through a couple of rough days) can turn very quickly into a big hindrance. It’s great that you are so in tune with your body and spirit that you were able to pinpoint it so quickly.
2 livingmonstrance // May 26, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Yes, Gabrielle, I agree. It is good that you write, the Lord brings important things to my attention through your comments.
In Ignation spirituality (well, in all spirituality), I’ve learned that there’s a spiritual truth that those things that are from God lead to God. If something is from God, it remains in Him and leads to Him. But something that leads away from God has its source elsewhere as well. St. Ignatius was very graced in attentiveness to this, in his discernment of spirits. He would discern whether he was responding to the good spirit or bad spirit based on the fruit in his interior life. Then he would back up and look at his discernment at the very beginning, the motions of his interior and sound reasoning. This led to his writing the Spiritual Exercises. Ignatian spirituality has been a great blessing for me - when I’ve followed it.
It reminds me also of something I read one time about a dream Don Bosco had. He and his boys were running down a road and some of the kids would suddenly fall to the ground and be lost, apparently for no reason. But when he looked more closely, he saw traps coming out of the ground that were hard to see. He looked more closely at the roots of these traps and he could see the source.
I think now that following the coffee thing to its roots would pay great dividends, so thank you again Gabrielle for commenting!
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