Lenten Journey: Scratches and Dings

I was walking out to my car the other day when I noticed a car at the back of the lot and thought, “Wow, there are a lot of scratches and dings on that car.” Shortly after, I realized that was MY car.

I knew where some of the scratches and dings came from. There’s a swirling pattern of scratches on the driver’s side where my then-three-year old decided to use my car as a chalkboard… with a garden stone. There’s a dent in the front of the hood where someone during rush hour hurtled a rock over the dividing wall that separates the neighborhood from the 6th Avenue freeway. But then, there was also a dent on the undercarriage. I think that came from a pothole near my grocery store. And several dimples on the passenger side rear door. And several other random dings and scratches that I hadn’t notice before.

That’s life. A ding here, a scratch there and, before you know it, that shiny new car from three years ago is looking worn. In life though, it is important to pay more attention to the scratches and dings to our spirit than we do to our cars.

“Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves” is the 4th Step among the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The challenge is that taking an inventory of our car requires a mindful but simple walk around, looking for anything that wasn’t there before. Taking inventory of ourselves requires “fearlessness.” And by fearless, we don’t actually mean, WITHOUT fear. We mean with less fear. LESS fear because of what comes before the 4th step.

“Admitted that we were powerless…” Not weak but powerless. Because as long as we live under the illusion that we must do this alone, we are powerless – We don’t realize the sources of strength and power available to us.

“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves…” There is a source of power and we can connect to it. 

“Made a decision to turn our will… over to the care of God as we understood God.” Again, we are not alone and we make a decision to stop being alone. This is NOT about giving up our will because that happened a long time ago. It is about turning over our will to the care of a healthy source of strength that will help us be less fearfilled.

These are NOT just steps for someone wrestling with addiction. They are steps for life.

The dings and scratches to our spirit can add up quickly if we allow fear to cause us to close our eyes. But we can open our eyes - not because we are brave - because we are not alone.

As you take inventory of yourself, what scratches and dings do you find that need to be tended to? Change is possible because you don’t have to make those changes alone.

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You are welcome to take this journey in solitude in your own personal journal or share your reflections. If anything that you do makes you think you might want to continue a journey using Spiritual Direction, now or in the future, you can make an appointment with me through my website: 

www.RedRocksSDC.com 

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