June 10, 2015

“It is hard to forgo that to which we are accustomed, and harder still to conquer the will.  But if you fail to overcome small and easy things, how will you overcome hard things?  Resist your evil inclinations in the beginning, and unlearn your evil habits, lest perhaps little by little they bring you greater trials.”
Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

This is more properly a Lenten meditation, for it is during that season in which we are more attuned to making changes in our lives that bring us closer to God.  Change is difficult whether it is wanted or not; which is why I always tell people, “If you are going to give up chocolate for Lent, take on the habit of eating baby carrots; or if you are going to give up TV, take on the habit of reading Scripture.”

It's easier to overcome those small and easy things if we replace them with small but better habits.  Baby carrots for chocolate, Scripture for TV, 30 minutes of walking for one TV show, etc.

And even though this seems to be more appropriate for a Lenten meditation, I was reminded of this quote from Thomas yesterday at Morning Prayer.  For the last several days, the first reading has come from the book of Deuteronomy and is, essentially, Moses summarizing for the people of Israel both the benefits of obeying and the consequences of disobeying the Law.

“No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe . . . But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish” (Deut. 30:14, 17-18a).

I sometimes wonder if we aren't having the same conversation with the Serpent on a daily basis.  “Oh, you won't die,” the Serpent whispers to us.  “You'll be fine.”

But the truth is, we aren't fine.  We slowly waste away by ignoring our physical health.  We slowly create an enclave of one by focusing only on ourselves, ignoring others around us.  We slowly drift away by seeing worship, prayer and study as non-essential activities.  It doesn't take long for us to wander off into places we thought we would never go, one easy step at a time.  And before we know it, we have a mountain of habits and practices too large to overcome.  And eventually we get buried by that mountain.

How can we keep from being buried by the mountain?  How can we avoid the trap of the Serpent?  One step at a time, I think.  Start small, maybe with a few baby carrots.  Make an effort to unlearn one bad habit at a time.  Make time to be more intentional about worship, prayer and study.

Lent comes around once a year to help us reorder our lives in relationship to God.  The bad news is that those “evil inclinations” and “evil habits” don't pay attention to the Church calendar and have a way of cropping up on a daily basis.

The good news is that there's never a bad time to make a new beginning.

Amen.