Matthew 7:24-27 “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
Recently I have been spending more time focusing on faith: going to daily mass, reading my bible, and writing this blog. While I’ve been doing more research into different aspects of the church, I haven’t changed too many aspects of my life. I still often find myself putting things off till last minute and becoming lax when I tell myself I’m going to do something. I can make a to do list for the day and it might even have only 3 or 4 activities on it, yet for some reason I put it off. Those 3 or 4 things might get done in 3 or 4 days. By that point, sometimes its almost too late and I end up rushing to get it done.
When this happens, I often feel like my feet are being taken out from underneath me. Then I read the verse up above. I may be listening to what God is telling me to do, but I’m not always acting off of what is said. On the days I do follow through on my to do list, I don’t just feel accomplished, I feel steady. I feel like I can handle anything that comes my way.
If I know all this, why don’t I follow through and act more often? Because of sloth. Sloth is most often associated with laziness but the Catholic Catechism also considers acedia, spiritual sloth, in that category. Spiritual sloth involves refusing the joy that God gives us. This is like complaining even when life has been good or not doing things that we know make us happy; two things that I do a lot.
We have to learn to push past this and fight against sloth. Next week I’ll talk about knowledge and hope, the gift and virtue God and the Holy Spirit gave us to fight against sloth.
Until then, here’s a song to keep you moving. This song always reminds me to think about my life and if I don’t like, to get up and change it.
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