Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’
Don’t hit “snooze” on your spiritual life
We wrote a lot of papers in the seminary. Like any school, the levels of discipline and diligence varied quite a lot from one student to another. Some of my classmates would tackle a paper as soon as it was assigned. Some would take a week or two to think through the topic and work on it gradually. Then there were the procrastinators. I would often joke: “Eh, I’m waiting to get started on that because I’ll be older and therefore wiser.” Without fail, usually when I’m down to the wire, that profound “wisdom” would remind me every time: “Yeah, you should’ve started this sooner.” God only knows how much unnecessary stress I put myself through. Procrastination can be a funny thing. I’m certainly one of those people that can thrive under the pressure of a deadline, and, at the end of the day, the work gets done, maybe even well. But the general experience of finishing a project that had been looming over me is almost always the same: “Why did I wait so long to take care of that?”
We can often have a similar experience in the spiritual life. Jesus tells us today that our actions reflect our hearts. The two sons have different responses and different actions. But it’s ultimately the actions that demonstrate their fidelity, not their words. How often do we feel a clear nudge from God about something and think: “Oh, that could be really good for me. I should do that,” but then we sit on our hands? Maybe something in a book or a homily (or a bulletin article…) really grabs our attention and we feel a brief moment of resolve. Do we act on this? Pondering those inspirations is great, but giving them a go is even better. Lip service doesn’t build our relationships, and our relationship with God is no different. Why wait? Receive, resolve, respond!
My prayer for you this week is that you may firmly and joyfully respond to one of God’s nudges. What’s that one spiritual practice that you’ve been putting off? Are you noticing those Rosary beads in your pocket more often than in your hand? Is there a book about a saint that you’ve been meaning to read for a while? Have you been thinking about volunteering for a particular ministry? Has a particular passage of Scripture continued to ambush you throughout the week? It doesn’t need to be something huge. Maybe it’s as simple as adding in five more minutes of prayer or spiritual reading during your day. Because that little commitment is better than doing nothing at all. It allows those seeds that God has been sowing in your heart to finally sprout, and you’ll be amazed at the fruits that come from them.
-Br. Andrew
