Growing Strong in the Spirit

In today’s first reading, Hebrews 12: 4-7, 11-15, St. Paul reminds us that our trials are ways in which the Lord disciplines us. His words “My son [daughter] do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son [daughter] he acknowledges.”  Those words, many times, are hard to hear, at least for me.  I do not cherish being disciplined, never have!  I usually want life to flow smoothly, doors to open when I knock. Opportunities to knock at my door as well. I want life to be easier than it is, yet I follow a crucified Lord. I know in my head that success spiritually is not anywhere near, in fact the opposite, many times, of how we describe success in this world. Spiritual success involves dying to self and rising with Christ, being last instead of first, rejoicing in the accomplishments of others, even when they receive the applause for which I was looking, the promotion for which I clamored, the opportunity for which I lusted. 

St. Paul says it so well:  “At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” I pray that when I am functioning from or measuring success according to worldly standards and thus  vulnerable to harboring resentment at not being as successful as the world deems success or even being ridiculed for “failing” according to worldly standards, that bitterness does not take root in me.  That would be failure because others would be defiled by my grudges. “See to it,” Paul says to us, “that no one be deprived of the grace of God, that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble, through which many may become defiled.”  Oh, God, may this be so! Thank you!