Back to Normal Life

In the past two weeks, there has been a lot of celebrating in my family.  My sister Abbey had a beautiful wedding mass and a great afternoon and evening to celebrate her marriage.  Then, my sister Sarah had her baby shower, where we celebrated the gift of new life, with her baby expected to arrive in December.  Having the extra family time to celebrate these major  life events for two whole weeks was a time of great excitement.  But now, life will get back to a more normal schedule.  Nothing too major or significant will take place in the coming weeks.  Life will be much more ordinary.  The last two weeks have reminded me of the mountaintop experiences we can have in our faith.  Sometimes, we have experiences where we are on a spiritual high from an intense encounter with God.  Maybe it’s from a retreat, conference, pilgrimage, or some other event.  But, we can’t stay in those moments forever.  We must return to our normal schedules, where life is often pretty ordinary.

How do we hold onto our faith when we are not up on those “mountaintops?”  How do we keep our relationship with Jesus our number one priority when people around us at work or school, have a lukewarm faith or no faith at all?  After a significant spiritual experience, it’s easy to fall back into old habits soon after and to be lacking in the spiritual intensity we may have experienced.

We often leave those experiences feeling closer to God than ever before, just waiting for the next time we can have another similar experience.  While these experiences help us grow in our faith, they can not be our only way of growing.  This is when it is important to create new prayer habits or strengthen former practices and stay plugged into a community who will help keep you accountable.

There is a difference in feeling close to God and being close to God.  Even if, in our ordinary and regular routines, we don’t feel close to God, it does not mean that we are not close to Him.  It is for the best that those spiritual highs don’t last forever, because our commitment to God can be strengthened in these times.  Are we committed to following God only if and when we feel close to Him or are we really committed to following God whether we feel His presence or not?
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If we continue to follow God at all points of life, it will be an overall slow, gradual walk.  Sometimes the walk will be really exciting and filled with big climbs and great views from the top.  Other times, it will be flat and maybe sort of dull.  But in this slow, gradual walk, our commitment and love for Him will deepen.  May we all allow the exciting spiritual experiences to keep us on the path towards God whenever we go back to normal life.