The Beatitudes we just heard in Luke’s Gospel contrasts how in life there are two different paths we can take. There is the path that leads to blessings and there is the path that leads to woes. The choice is ours.
I don’t know about you, but I have stories about both, how I’ve made choices that lead to blessings and at times how I’ve choices that lead to self -inflicted woes. Good choices, bad choices, they’re all part of life’s great learning curve.
When I was in high school, one day I decided to skip school. My academic advancement was obviously not a priority for me. So, I called in to the school office. “Bob White won’t be coming to school today. He’s sick.” The voice at the other end was suspicious. “Can I please ask who’s calling?” That’s when I got nervous. “Ah, this is my dad calling.” Busted! Bad choice, big woe.
That’s how it was when I was pursing my exceedingly undistinguished high school career. If I wasn’t trying to skip school, it was me thinking I had to prove myself. It was as if I thought I wasn’t good enough and I had to show everyone else I was. That was the pattern, me not taking many risks always trying to blend in with the crowd.
As I think about it that’s why I didn’t run for student council. What if I didn’t get elected? Would that make me a loser? Not really but I didn’t want to risk the chance that it would. As a result, I missed out on a lot of things all because I played it safe.
I recently ran across something I wish I had heard when I was in high school. It goes like this. “To come to any sort of authentic greatness in life you don’t have to be perfect or stunningly good at anything. All you have to do, is to be true to YOU, the person God made you to be.
Poet Mary Oliver expresses it this way. “You don’t have to walk on your knees one hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. So, let the soft animal of your body that you came to know as your very soul rest quietly … in the one who made you and you now know fully for the first time.”
There are two paths we can take in life, one leads to blessings, one leads to self-inflicted woes. This week, think of one choice that has led to a blessing in your life. Thank God for them. Then think of one choice that has led to a self-inflicted woe in your life. Ask God to help you learn from that.
And then remember that bit of advice I wish I’d heard in high school. To come to any sort of authentic greatness in life you don’t have to be perfect or stunningly good at anything. Just be true to YOU, the person God made you to be. May that be the gift you and I give to ourselves this week and see how it feels and then count it as a blessing.
