Humility: An Adventure
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?
Welcome to the first post in the new blog, the Catholic Teen Blog! This blog is for teens and anyone interested! Our first post is about something applicable to people of any age. I hope this blog will become your “morning read with my coffee” or your nighttime guilty pleasure, because, unlike other parts of our site, this is where we get personal and real.
I recently had an honest conversation with someone close to me about a mentality that is everywhere in the world, and so easy to fall into as Christians. When sitting down to write about it, the conversation brought to mind some of the wisdom I’ve learned from the people around me, the examples of holiness I have in my life, and the works I’ve read from holy, thoughtful people.
COMFORT
My question for you: Has anyone ever spoken the following sentences to you?
“God loves me just the way I am. I don’t need to change.”
“You’re being judgmental. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Judge not lest you be judged’?”
“God just wants me to be happy.”
“I’m comfortable this way.”
Satan ambushes the spiritual life with these thoughts and leaves people thinking that because of God’s never-changing love, it follows that God does not want Christians to change.
THE ADVENTURE OF CHANGE
Now before you get impatient with all the people coming to mind that think or live this way, remember that only a true awe of the beauty and truth of the love of Christ can defeat this thought process.
What people don’t understand, painfully sometimes the people closest to our hearts, is that when Christ first offers His hand to us when we start a relationship with Him, He offers us something different from the frivolous life that so many people live in our times.
When we take His hand and agree to follow Him, we do not follow a lighthearted, comfortable path. At a conference a couple years ago, a priest gave a talk that I’ll never forget. He said that life with Jesus is an adventure. He paralleled the Hobbit when Bilbo goes on his adventure with our lives. (Got to have that Tolkien reference!)
In order to go on an adventure, we have to change, and adventure usually brings a change for the better. This is the possibly the greatest lesson the Hobbit teaches us. Bilbo Baggins had to change. By the end of the story, he realizes that he doesn’t need a hankie or a second breakfast and that there is more to life than comfort. He also realizes that the struggle of an adventure is worth it.
God wants us to follow Him into an adventure, one of painful, beautiful and redemptive change. His love is the whole reason for that adventure because when God changes us, He takes away the things that keep us from knowing Him and from experiencing life-giving joy.
Change allows God to take our capability for heroism, holiness and love, and just run with it.
The adventure of being in love with Jesus is worth it.
STARTING WITH ME
So how do we deal with all the people who think this way?
Well, maybe we first have to begin with ourselves.
Good Christians and Catholics can even overlook interior change.
Sometimes we take Confession for granted. We allow ourselves to dwell on thinking, “Well, I don’t sin as badly as that person.”
But how often do we really question ourselves before God? How often do we make a conscious decision to act with humility or patience?
How often do we ask God,
“Please give me the grace to be humble in this situation!”
“What do I need to do to make my love for this person reflect your self-sacrificial love for me?”
“How do you want me to actively fight against this habitual sin?”
“What do I need to work on?”
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For more on this topic, see Scripture verses:
-Hebrews 12:1
-Proverbs 11:2
-Philippians 2:3
-Matthew 18:3