In the life of faith, I sometimes find myself slipping a little bit in different areas. Take for example my prayer life. If I notice that I have been unfaithful to a daily prayer life of spending time with my Lord, it is easy to go into "PERFECTION MODE" where I come up with everything that I need to do each day in order to get back on track.
"Ok... I need to go to Mass, spend a holy hour in prayer at the chapel, pray a rosary, read a chapter of the Bible, pray Morning - Evening - and Night prayer, and of course read a chapter from a spiritual book and contemplate how to apply it to my life. And when I get it all done today, then I have to hold myself accountable to doing it again tomorrow. I'll be back on track in no time!"A bit ridiculous huh? We then realize that we can't maintain such a crazy schedule after doing nothing for the past two months. So, we give up, go back to doing nothing at all, and then a month later we try to go into "PERFECTION MODE" once again. After this hasn't worked a few times, then I try to come up with another solution to the "problem" of my lacking prayer life. After that solution doesn't work, then I try another solution. This turns into a vicious cycle of solution after solution, and resolution after resolution - and then we never really make a change.
Here's my quick suggestion... pick one thing to focus on in your life right now. Maybe its a particular struggle or addiction that needs to be rooted out of your life. Maybe its a need to grow in your knowledge of scripture. Maybe its a need for more quite time with Jesus. Whatever it is, pick the ONE thing that stands out to you as that which will most positively affect your life of faith. Ok... got it? Now come up with a realistic game plan to focus on that thing over the next day. Then execute that game plan today and tomorrow. You did it? Good. Now keep focused on working on that issue until you are comfortable with the progress you have made and feel that its time to move onto the next thing that needs tending to in your life. This may take weeks or months. Just be faithful to the small things and you will find that over time the Lord does change us. Don't be satisfied simply with a DESIRE for change. Make an effort to be faithful to Our Lord in the small stuff, and you will see that He will turn that DESIRE into a REALITY.
-Tim Hanley
Hard as Nails Ministries
Newark, NJ
