THE CHOICE IS SIMPLE

[The following is a reworked reprint of my blog of December 25, 2012.]

G. K. Chesterton, when asked what the trouble with the world is, replied, "I am."

I doubt Chesterton was the first to know that, to say that, he just said it more succinctly than others. So this is no great secret, has not been a secret for a long, long time.

Why, then, are we always taken by surprise when it again proves true of us?

And why does it invariably feel so good when we can point Gertrude toward her bathroom mirror when she's complaining about Sylvia? When we can tell her to look in her own eyes and accept that she is looking at her problem?

Of course, the answer is ego. More importantly, the answer is personal because it is our very own ego. Our ageless, indefatigable ego which will ever and always legislate for itself. The secret to taming the ego is to get grateful for it. We get grateful that it eases our way into accepting that we're going down that wrong road again when we're doing its dictates.

We're powerless over our ego's voice, but in that very powerlessness, we find our choice...God or ego? The choice is simple...get grateful now or get grateful later. Later when we'll have so many more amends to make for not getting grateful sooner.

Thank you.