The Challenge of Tension

I'm reading Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, and find in it a number of very powerful thoughts. Frankls insists that it is our attitude that makes the difference in how we live our lives. He should know. He survived a concentration camp during WWII.

One sentence in particularly caught my eye: Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become (104). In Frankls's mind, tension in our lives is healthy and to be expected. It is what keeps us searching and working toward a better "me". I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to assume that what a person needs in the first place is... "homeostasis" i.e., a tensionless state.

During this time of Lent, it is good to reflect on such thoughts. Are you struggling right now with some difficulty? Take heart. It has the potential to offer you great growth. Are you trying to solve a problem? Your problem can lead you to a deeper level of consciousness. Is life hard for your right now? Then you have the chance to grow more than when things are going well.

I'll admit, such concepts are difficulty to grasp, and I'll be the first to say that given the choice, I'd really prefer the trouble free life. But since life does happen, Frankl's advise is worth considering. Then, when the chips are down and we find ourselves faced with choices, we can call to mind Frankl's words, that life is about how we live out our challenges, not on how much it conforms to our liking.

Letting Silence Lead

Silence is Golden

During Lent we often hear the need to "die to self". It's an ancient concept, one I hold is misleading. It gives the impression that all that is human is tainted, and that the only way to a spiritual life is to kill the human tendencies. Nothing could be more wrong.

Jesus never said we must "choose death". He said we must live in the light of truth. Moses says in Deuteronomy, I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.(30:19).

How do we heed the voice of God? Where is that voice heard? In contemplative prayer. Through contemplative prayer, we will discern which choice leads to life, and which leads to death.

Elizabeth of the Trinity writes The contemplative is a being who lives in the radiance of the Face of Christ, who enters into the mystery of God, not in the light that flows from human thought, but in that created by the word of the Incarnate Word.

Let us retreat into a period of silence and learn contemplative prayer. For contemplative prayer takes us beyond mere human enlightenment. It brings us into the light of the Divine. If we position ourselves daily before the Face of Christ, our choices will reflect life.

What to Do When we Fail to Find

 I think one of my favorte gospel stories comes from John 6:66. Jesus has just explained to the crowd that he is the bread of life. Many followers are confused and even scandalized. They turn from Jesus and walk away. Jesus turns to his own twelve, and says those sorrowful words, "Will you also go away?" And Peter answers, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"

I think there are times in our lives when we are tempted to give it all up. We often blame betrayal by those we put our trust. But that is not the real reason we would give up believing in something or someone. It is always deeper. Giving up implies a surrender, a failure to find, or a total misunderstanding of what was promised. It happens to all of us at some time in our life. It isn't so much a crisis of faith as it is a new insight into its flaws. And we are shaken.

By now we are all aware that faith does not protect us from evil. It does not save us from harm. It is not a shield to guard us, nor does it always hand us the strength we want and need. When we reailze this, we too are tempted to "go away".

What is marvelous about Peter's answer is, he was just as mystified by Jesus words as the others. He didn't know the answer, he couldn't see any better. But what Peter did have that many others did not, was the knowledge that it wasn't going to get any better by leaving.

To whom shall we go? In other words, well, Lord, this following you is pretty scary. You speak in riddles, you do things that are against the law. You live like a bum and perform miracles like a magician. But Lord, though I don't understand it all, I know that you are leading us to something new, something exalted. And I don't have to understand it totally to know that your words will give us light. Not all at once. But if I stay with you, I shall gradually understand, and gradually see, and gradually experience true life.

Stay with Jesus until you experience the goodness he has to offer, and your heart says, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." And you will be so glad you did not go away.

Attitude - Our Wave of the Sea

By the Sea

Water. So necessary for life. So pervasive over the earth. Yet, water can destroy as much as it gives life. A lesson for us to be sure. What we have can only be gift by how we accept and deal with it. Our attitude in life tempers everything. We make the storms or the floods, or we make the gentle rain. And, we also make the sunshine which invites life from the sodden mass.