I've gleaned some important learnings over the past year in a day-long, once-a-month class I have been taking on Spiritual Formation in the Congregation. I want to share one of the recent truths I've learned that is still soaking in, but I believe has the potential to change my life if I can truly absorb it. It is a simple but profound quote from an old Jesuit priest, Pedro Arrupe, who was giving an impromptu answer to a young upstart student's challenge to boil all his life's knowledge down to the one most practical, important thing to know in trying to align our lives with God's will. How do we know what God wants us to do? Hmm... reminds me of another young upstart who challenged Jesus with a similar question, and the reason Arrupe's answer catches my attention is that it sounds very similar to Jesus'. Here is his answer.

Nothing is more practical than

Finding God, that is, than

FALLING IN LOVE

In a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

What seizes your imagination,

Will affect everything.

It will decide

What will get you out of bed

In the morning,

What you do with your evenings,

How you spend your weekends,

What you read, who you know,

What breaks your heart,

And what amazes you with

Joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love,

And it will decide everything.

            Wow, sounds an awful lot like "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and your neighbor as yourself. All of The Law and the prophets are summed up in these."

            I think any of us can identify with either of these young upstarts, because we all seem to want to know the bottom line, don't we? Somehow we think if we can get someone older and wiser to impart their whole life's learnings to us, we won't have to go through the hard, sometimes painful work of learning these things for ourselves. But no matter how good the answer, we end up needing to live most of our life before these truths sink in and prove themselves true. Hmm... I guess that's the purpose of life.

Pastor Carl