Meanwhile, Jen at Conversion Diary gives us something else to chew on regarding detachment, food, health, pregnancy, and weight loss as a motivator (maybe the "wrong" motivator for many of us).
Since the weight loss ended for me a couple of months ago, I've been at loose ends spiritually, and I'm certain that the two are connected. A friend told me this morning, about her own spiritual life, "I need a jump start;" I practically had to restrain myself from grabbing her about the shoulders and wailing "ME TOO!"
I wonder if it's as simple as this: I had a big problem, a spiritual obstacle that consumed my attention, and now that it's been mostly lifted from me, the next problem has fallen into its place in line and I don't know how to attack it or even where to start or what the problem is. It's like...
...no, don't say it.
Spiritual debugging.
Yeah, okay, like that.
Occam's razor suggests that I've merely replaced gluttony with more than a dash of good old-fashioned vanity. Not necessarily the most serious of vices, and one that I plan to shake off eventually... after I am done shopping for all my nice new clothes, and admiring myself in them in the mirror. The winter wardrobe is done, but I'm not quite done yet. Spring is just around the corner, after all.
Did I say that? This is Minnesota.
And no, even though spiritual dry spells seem to be going around like influenza this season, that's not my problem. "Dry spell" tends to refer to the situation where even one's most fervent prayers seem to be met with no response, no peace, no consolation. The case where one is apparently too preoccupied or self-important to find time in one's day to pray at all, well, that's rather a different sort of problem.
At least I have learned by now that a bowl of Cocoa Krispies will certainly NOT help. I also suspect that the answer is to be found in doing something rather than in thinking about what to do. Which probably means it's high time I ended this post.
a-ha...replacing the "thoughts" with doing...i am never at a loss in our home for something to "do" & when mental hunger struck over the last 4 years after my wt. loss (eat a cookie, eat a cookie~~ those incessant thoughts), i would grab something, anything (laundry, the sponge, the toilet bowl brush, whatever). now my new challenge is to 'pray without ceasing' while doing these things...afterall, i don't need to think about cleaning the toilet bowl(plenty of practice there!!) & so rather i am trying to change my mental tapes to praying for those who use it.
one interesting thing i read over the weekend about spiritual dry spells (wish i could remember where...) was the question to one experiencing them: what did God last clearly tell you to do? were you obedient to that? He never gives us more than we can handle & maybe that's why it seems dry at the moment...He's waiting for me to be obedient. that is my companion thought this week.
sorry to ramble so...
Posted by: qualcosa di bello | 19 January 2009 at 08:22 AM
"Not necessarily the most serious of vices, and one that I plan to shake off eventually... after I am done shopping for all my nice new clothes, and admiring myself in them in the mirror."
That is hilarious. I also love the term "spiritual debugging." I'll have to remember that one!
Posted by: Jennifer (Conversion Diary) | 19 January 2009 at 10:09 AM