Struggle against the Storm and Reestablish Your Course
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 24, 2015
AMMA SYNCLETICA said, “If you start a good work, do not let the enemy discourage you. Your endurance will defeat the enemy. When sailors encounter unfavorable winds they do not toss their cargo overboard or abandon ship. They struggle against the storm for a while and then reestablish their course. If you run into a headwind, raise a cross as a sail and you will continue your voyage in safety.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 119]
By and large, I find that modern folks give up far too quickly. We don’t seem to have the willingness to stick with things over a long haul. My sense is that we are distracted, that we chase after the next “shiny thing” that appears on the screen of our brain, and that we quickly move on to something new and different in order to stimulate ourselves.
I also find that this inability to stick with things reflects an existential boredom with life, a boredom with the way things are. We live under the illusion that life should be exciting, flashy, and a thrill-a-minute. The moment we don’t experience the thrill, we move on to something else that tickles our fancy.
Syncletica speaks specifically to what it’s like to face headwinds in life when we are growing in God. Sometimes there are moments when it takes all the effort and energy at our disposal just to put one foot in front of the other. In these times, every force in the world seems to be causing resistance, pushing back against our movement forward, against our deepening life in God.
She uses the image of a ship held up by the winds, in which progress is stalled. The crew, in such a situation, might lose confidence, and in their panic, begin to jettison cargo overboard in order to get through the storm.
The Amma’s wisdom is to not lose confidence, but rather to struggle for a while with the wind. Don’t give up just because giving up is easier than struggle. Wrestle. Fight. Then readjust course as necessary.
Most people notice (most often, in hindsight) that their greatest spiritual growth comes during the storms of life. I don’t necessarily like that, nor do you; nonetheless, it does not change the reality that storms provide the setting in which our lives deepen in God, in which our awareness of God is heightened, and in which our faith in God is tried.
AMMA SYNCLETICA said, “If you start a good work, do not let the enemy discourage you. Your endurance will defeat the enemy. When sailors encounter unfavorable winds they do not toss their cargo overboard or abandon ship. They struggle against the storm for a while and then reestablish their course. If you run into a headwind, raise a cross as a sail and you will continue your voyage in safety.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 119]
By and large, I find that modern folks give up far too quickly. We don’t seem to have the willingness to stick with things over a long haul. My sense is that we are distracted, that we chase after the next “shiny thing” that appears on the screen of our brain, and that we quickly move on to something new and different in order to stimulate ourselves.
I also find that this inability to stick with things reflects an existential boredom with life, a boredom with the way things are. We live under the illusion that life should be exciting, flashy, and a thrill-a-minute. The moment we don’t experience the thrill, we move on to something else that tickles our fancy.
Syncletica speaks specifically to what it’s like to face headwinds in life when we are growing in God. Sometimes there are moments when it takes all the effort and energy at our disposal just to put one foot in front of the other. In these times, every force in the world seems to be causing resistance, pushing back against our movement forward, against our deepening life in God.
She uses the image of a ship held up by the winds, in which progress is stalled. The crew, in such a situation, might lose confidence, and in their panic, begin to jettison cargo overboard in order to get through the storm.
The Amma’s wisdom is to not lose confidence, but rather to struggle for a while with the wind. Don’t give up just because giving up is easier than struggle. Wrestle. Fight. Then readjust course as necessary.
Most people notice (most often, in hindsight) that their greatest spiritual growth comes during the storms of life. I don’t necessarily like that, nor do you; nonetheless, it does not change the reality that storms provide the setting in which our lives deepen in God, in which our awareness of God is heightened, and in which our faith in God is tried.
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