Saturday, March 14, 2015

Mindful Attention to a Need for Self-Importance

Contentment is about resting, about removing ourselves from the vain strivings of the world and finding peace and quiet in God's will. 

-Gary Thomas, "Authentic Faith"


Don't you love it when you read a passage from Scripture or from a saintly person, and God pokes you with a "This means you!"  That happened to me this morning with a meditation passage from Frances de Sales that said:  "Nothing stands in the way of our spiritual growth more than self-love or a sense of self-importance." 

I can no more get rid of my need for recognition than I can change my fingers.  I need God's grace to do so, and I've confessed and asked for grace.  But as I mindfully look at my day today, I see that I haven't made much progress in the self-importance front.  Indeed, I internally complain about a pattern in my career in which others have gotten credit for my work.  

Perhaps that is why it happens a lot.  The Lord is trying to work out my own need for recognition, trying to help me to find contentment.

I loved Gary Thomas' quote above, although I have to say that doing God's Will hasn't been the fast track to peace and quiet for me.  But I do need to remember, as Frances de Sales points out: "We have come to expect that our prayers - our life - should be steeped in orange water, our virtues nourished by a diet of candy. As a result we forget Jesus prostrate on the ground, sweating blood and water in agony, because of the deadly conflict in his soul. Self-love blinds us, makes us forget how it really is."
 


No comments:

Post a Comment