Thursday, March 9, 2017

Stubborn In Our Ways

Sometimes Baxter won’t listen. That usually happens when he either becomes impatient about something he wants or doesn’t want to hear that he can’t have what he wants. If he wants a drink from the spigot, Baxter cries from the tub. If I don’t respond immediately, he stands there and continues to cry unceasingly. He usually wins, unless I can get out of earshot of his racket. Begging from the table is another matter. If Baxter picks up the scent of some delicacy that delights his palette, he becomes very forceful in trying to get it. He will jump on the chair next to mine and pull at my arm to get a piece. If that doesn’t work, he will try to get on the table and nose his way to my plate. At that point, my voice gets stern with him and I quickly place him back on his chair. He settles down for a while until he can figure out how to launch another move for my food. Baxter can get stubborn about getting what he wants. He wants it NOW, and he wants it even if it isn’t good for him.

We can get that way too. We set our sights on something, and we don’t quit until we get it, and preferably as soon as possible. We get trapped by our desires. They begin to consume our lives. They take all our time and energy. They dominate how we relate to each other. They become the only thing we take into consideration when making decisions. That car, that house, that job, that relationship, or maybe just that way of doing something-I got to have whatever it is I want, and nothing will get in my way. This is the classic condition of the addict, but it sometimes marks all of our lives from time to time.

Lent is a time to free ourselves of the desires that weigh us down and keep us from wanting better things for ourselves. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are meant to change what drives us day to day. In raising our minds and hearts to God in a personal and mutual relationship, prayer is trying to show us something better to want. In consistently eating or drinking a little less, we shrink our appetite to taste more of what we do imbibe and appreciate it more. In sharing what we have, we realize what we have been given and grow in our thanks for life’s blessings.

In time, these disciplines cause us to be less driven but more satisfied. We move from quantity to quality. Less becomes more, because what we desire more and more we can’t buy or steal. We can only receive and accept it. Instead of feeding our appetites for various physical or psychological pleasures, we feed our souls with the food of happiness—genuine love, the taste of beauty and goodness, and gratitude for the richness of human life. These are God’s gifts.

Baxter’s life is driven by his basic instincts, and once he is hooked on something, he can’t see anything else. We are called to higher things, the things of God. His love makes us hungry for more, more of what makes life meaningful and full. Lent is the season when we tame our desires into Christian virtues that make us and our world better.