THE BELOVED SIDELINES

The sidelines is where we gather when we feel we cannot carry our pain any further.  We drop the cross, telling ourselves, "Whoa, enough is enough.  I'll get back to this later."  Then we go for a drink of water.  Then we have a hot-dog.  Then we begin to become attracted to any disparate number of things.  Finally, we begin to diagnose the cross, we theorize its relevance, we chat about it with others and bask on some sunscreen while slurping our ice-caps.  But the one thing we do not do...is carry it.  And the anxiety escalates exponentially.

Carry the cross.  This is what I must do.  Without a big speech.  Without attention from the fickle crowd.  Without delay.

This will bruise the darkness and break the hold.  I will be His disciple and He will help me scale any wall - especially the most imposing wall...the wall of my resistance.  Do you know what is the most difficult wall to overcome?  Any task that I just don't WANT to do.

"A thanksgiving sacrifice honors me" says the Lord - thanksgiving, because we did some task not because we wanted to, but because it is our duty.  Duty quickly becomes devotion when waves of peace flow into our hearts because we have sacrificed our preferences and offered our energies to the task at hand. 

Jesus, please help me carry the Cross.
Trudging slowly but surely through the waves of anxiety.
And with your help, seeing that in fact the goal
is not nearly as impossible as I once made it out to be.

Keep me safe from the sidelines.

Father Aaron C. Knox

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Pretty serious stuff, eh?  Ha.  Well, remember to smiles me bay.  Its good fer ye.

Yippers.  Almost makes me want to get off the sidelines...carry the cross.  Ice-cap anyone?

~ Father A