Thursday, July 23, 2015

WE START WHEN WE OPEN OUR MIND

It has been said, I forget by whom, that the greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection or order. Scrupulosity in a word.

In a book I read many years ago, The Cloud of Unknowing, we are warned to beware of the overly scrupulous. I've come to see in me the danger of scrupulosity...I become the judge, jury, executioner in my own mind. And we don't even have to guess who sits on the bench, in the jury box, swings the sword...my very own ego, of course.

"We must bear patiently not being good . . . and not being thought good," according to St. Francis of Assisi. And who's going to argue with him?

The basic trouble with trying to "be good" is that very goal becomes our god. We seek not for knowledge of God's will, but rather for God to do our will in making us what and how we believe we need to be. Which God already has made us...perfect in his eyes. 

Our job on our life's journey is to see us his way...not to change ourselves to become our idea of good (i.e., perfect), but to accept ourselves just as we are...perfect in God's eyes. Then live up to that.

We start when we learn to love and laugh...and that's all.

Thank you.

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