If You Do Not Overcome Little Things…

“If you but consider what peace a good life will bring to yourself,” said Thomas a Kempis, “and what joy it will give to others, I think you will be more concerned about your spiritual progress . . . It is hard to break a habit, but . . . if you do not overcome little and easy things, how shall you overcome harder things? Resist your inclination at the beginning . . . lest it lead you gradually into a worse difficulty . . .”

We sometimes suppose that our particular problems, difficulties, temptations, and habits would easily resolve themselves in some other place. In a measure this may sometimes be so, but “some defect is found in everything, and everywhere someone will vex you.”

Socrates is said to have commented on a person who had difficulty in solving his problems, because he “took himself along with him.” In every situation there is an element of self, and the will, the strength, to live above external circumstances must be within ourselves.

Life is filled with choices and daily decisions, and despite discouragement or disappointment, peace and a satisfying sense of purpose do come with doing better, with being better, with repenting and improving, with conquering unwholesome habits. And whatever direction or tangent we are now taking will, unless we change the course, give us some indication of where we shall ultimately arrive.

The Lord God will not judge us by others, but only by ourselves and what we do with our own opportunities; and no man will lose what he is entitled to. On this premise, appraise the values; seek counsel; be prayerful, humble, and teachable; and “consider what peace a good life will bring to yourself, and what joy it will give to others.”

“We have nothing to lose⎯except everything.”

And nothing to gain⎯except everything.