Reflections for 5/31/10

"Sadly, I don't think most people want to be freed from their sin. We've grown comfortable with it, almost become friends with it. It pads our insecurities. We don't know how to live without it. We've lived so long with our fears, we don't know how we would e without them. We've made friends with our sinfulness. For example, we may have based our marriage on unforgiveness for twenty years. How could we change it? or maybe we love to be angry. Our anger is what drives us day after day, our anger at our father or mother, our anger at the system, our anger at our work. We live on our anger, we feed on our anger. Most of us don't want to be freed from our sin. We've lived with our darkness so long we are comfortable with it. Our lives are full of sacred cows and hot potatoes, areas where we indulge our sin. No one can touch them."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 206)

One of the hardest things to change is a sacred cow. This is true not only for an institution like a church, but is true for individuals as well.

You will know something is a sacred cow when confronting it or questioning it, causes discomfort. When it looks like something might actually change and the system pushes back, you know you've discovered the sacred cow. Perhaps another way of putting it is "addressing the elephant in the room."

When I look at myself, the sacred cow for me would probably either be gluttony or sloth. I'm sure there are others but those two come immediately to mind. I'm working on the gluttony especially around food, but the sloth feeds the gluttony. And it is very true that I find more excuses for the sloth than almost anything. Even when the proverbial light bulb goes on and I can see clearly how that behavior is hindering my ability to fully live into my potential, I find it hard to show it the door.

I probably need to fully recognize the difference between a comfortable shoe and one that has holes everywhere and is barely being held together.

Yet as I get closer to exorcising those aspects of my life, the closer I get to seeing more clearly the image of God within. I just need to keep wanting it gone, and believe that the new person that emerges will be even better.

Blessings,
Ed