Continuing a reflection on our spiritual journey, there is the reality we must always consider: boredom. The first time I had the fortune to be free for a month, I was excited just imagining the possible places to visit even on a limited budget. Once the vacation began, one month seemed like a year was ahead of me. So much time. But by the beginning of the third week it happened. The excitement was not there. Something was missing.
So, too, the time given to embracing our spiritual journey can encounter the enthusiasm and interest of newness, answering to an inner yearning. At the beginning of such a journey we get a taste of the core of our spiritual goal: a healthy, loving and faithful union with God.
Yet, the busyness of our lives, a culture filled with so many distractions: these become magnets that attract our time and interest almost every hour of every day. A major blockage to our continued interest in the journey, in the loving union with God, is the degree of self-discovery that naturally begins to take over.
Mulholland (The Deeper Journey) suggests the traveler will discover some "pretty rough territory" along the way. The major threat to us is having to confront what is much stronger than we care to admit: the ego! One of the strongest and most deceptive component of this self that is me, the ego builds a "false self," takes us into the world of the idol," and the "religious false self" before our journey brings us into the Eden we year for, the land of God. There we enable ourselves to shed the vices that shackle us and the put on the cloak of virtues we know deep down will make our lives so much better. (p. 20)
If this part of the journey were not a genuine challenge, we could say there will be no encounter with evil or sin in our world.
Reflect on some of the words from Psalm 67 (8-9, 20): "When you walked at the head of your people, O God, and lived with them on the journey, the earth shook at your presence, and skies pour forth their rain, alleluia."
