How to Pray | How to Live
In this vlog I speak with Pam Fontaine, a chemistry teacher at La Salle Academy (the school where I serve as chaplain). She shares how she came to see her bout with cancer as a blessing in her life. She is an inspiration to me. I know you, too, will be inspired by her.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGggVsww_e8]
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I actually like Anthony Robbins. You’ve probably seen his infomercials on TV. He’s the tall guy with big teeth (a joke he makes about himself) and a deep voice who claims to be able to help people to change anything in their lives. I appreciate his work. I’ve listened to a lot of his CDs and I think he has some good things to say. I believe he’s sincere in wanting to help people, and he seems to be a man of faith because he makes a lot of references to God, prayer, and meditation.
But I have a problem with the title of his best selling audio self-help series: Personal Power. I’d like to propose a different take on that title. For those of us trying to live as disciples of the Lord, I’d like to propose we live by Personal Powerlessness.
St. Paul wrote, “For when I am weak, then I’m strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10) Lately, I’ve become more and more convinced that I am nothing without the Lord and that I can do nothing good without Him. The bad that I do is because of me; the good that I do is because of God’s grace and my cooperation with Him.
In my own life, I’ve been trying to face my own weaknesses more and I’m beginning to see anew that I need God’s power to overcome weakness. It’s not about self-perfection or my personal power; it’s about the power of the Holy Spirit in me. The truth is that there are just certain things in our lives that we can’t overcome on our own power, and it’s okay to admit that. That’s why God is God and we’re not.
Personal power, I believe, is a delusion. It makes us into our own God. It makes us think we’re in control. This is not to say that we don’t have free will. Free will is one of God’s greatest gifts to us, and properly used it is a tremendous force for good. But, unaided by His grace and power, we can misuse our free will.
I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t know what the next hour will bring. Some things are beyond my control. But I do know that my life is in God’s hands, and each day I need to make a decision to turn my life and will over to Him so that His power will be at work in me. So, thanks for your good work Tony Robbins, but I’m passing on the personal power philosophy. I need God’s power in me, because sometimes my own power just isn’t enough.
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I’ve come to see a pattern in many people who are trying to live a holy life: they strive for moral perfection, realize it is unachievable, give into discouragement, and then begin to strive again… Repeat cycle… Truth be told, I’ve seen this pattern in my own life as well.
It’s this idea of striving, though, that seems to be the problem. Dictionary.com defines the verb “to strive” as “to exert oneself vigorously; try hard.” Striving is not bad in itself, but there’s a negative side to it. For example, recently I’ve been striving to run more miles. However, there’s an interesting thing that happens in running: when I relax and let go, I find that my running is more enjoyable, that I get in the flow; but, when I strive to run well, I find that I get tired more quickly and even feel more pain. Another example is the golf swing. Grip a club tightly and swing really hard, and that little white ball isn’t going very far; however, loosen your grip and swing effortlessly, and that ball mysteriously flies farther than you thought you could hit it. Read more »
“For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10)
I have a confession to make: for years I’ve been a secret Pelagian.
If you haven’t studied Church history or don’t know much about the early Christian heresies, Pelagius was a 5th century monk who denied the doctrine of original sin and the need for God’s grace to live a holy life. Basically, he believed that we can get to Heaven without God’s help. This is known as Pelgianism.
They say the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Well, I admit that even though I often talk a good game about surrender, there’s still a deep part of me that isn’t surrendered. There’s that part of me that wants to fix myself. There’s that part of me that’s too proud to admit that I need God’s help to live a virtuous life. I want to control my life.
Yet, when I take a reflective step back, I must admit that this desire to fix myself and to control my life has led to great frustration and even sadness at times. Why else would I peruse the self-help section every time I’m in Barnes and Noble, or why else would I spend time reading personal development blogs if I didn’t want to fix myself?
Now, I admit that I have benefitted from many “self-help” books and personal development blogs; however, the subtlety behind this pursuit of self-help is that I’m in control, that I can fix myself.
But the truth is I can’t fix myself; and you can’t fix yourself either. Yes, we are good; but we are broken. None of us is perfect; each of us experiences the effects of original sin. I’m not saying that we should abdicate responsibility for our lives; what I’m saying is that there’s a reason why we call Jesus “Savior.”
How often people say to me, “Father, every time I go to confession I sound like a broken record. I feel like I confess the same sins over and over.” Well, join the human race. I’m a broken record too.
When we try to fix ourselves we render the word “Savior” meaningless. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He came to save us from the sins that we struggle with every day. He came to save us from ourselves.
I’m coming to see more clearly that each time I attempt to fix myself or to control my life, I empty the cross of its power (see 1 Corinthians 1:17). When I realize I can’t fix myself, that there are some things that are just too big for me to overcome on my own power, that’s when I realize the power of the cross and God’s grace.
I realize that this is contrary to the do-it-yourself mentality that is so prevalent in our culture. But, if you haven’t noticed, our culture is pretty broken as well.
I need a Savior. It’s so liberating to say that. I need a Savior. I need Jesus. I can’t fix myself…and it’s okay. That’s why Jesus died for me. I just need to learn to be still, to surrender, and to let Him love me, so that I can experience the power of His cross.
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As I write this I’m cruising at 30,000 feet on my way to Omaha, Nebraska to spend the week at the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) at Creighton University. IPF is a wonderful program designed to help seminarians enter into a deeper relationship with the Holy Trinity. There are 175 seminarians from all over the [...]
12-Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous have helped countless people around the world to win the battle over addiction. The 12 Step program, which is really a lived spirituality, helps people to see their Goliath, to name their Goliath, and, with God’s help, to overcome their Goliath. I call it a Goliath because most people in the grip of addiction feel that the giant is just too big, that they can’t defeat it. And the truth is that they can’t defeat it, not with their own will power. But more on that point in a moment. You need not have a serious addiction to benefit from the 12-Step program. We all have Goliaths in our lives: things that keep us down, that we feel are too big to be defeated. So what does this biblical story (1 Samuel 17) teach us about defeating the Goliath in our lives?
The movie Romero is based on the true story of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the political unrest in El Salvador during the 1970s. The movie depicts the horrendous human rights violations that the government was committing against the Salvadoran people. Women were being raped and killed; everyday laborers were sometimes slaughtered at random; and priests, too, were being murdered. Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, became a voice for the voiceless speaking out against the abuses, and he paid the ultimate price. On March 24, 1980, he was shot to death while celebrating Mass.
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