“Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.”
— Thomas Merton
Today, at the midpoint of the Great Fast, the Church puts the Cross in the middle of the Church to give us hope and to reorient us if we’ve gotten distracted by veganism or long lenten services. The Cross is here as a signpost pointing us to freedom.
Freedom isn’t the absence of hindrances to doing whatever you want. If you can’t choose *what to desire* then you’re a slave to desires imposed on you and they rule you. Freedom is to be able to choose what to desire. Emerging into freedom requires us to take ownership of our will and responsibility for shaping it.
“People don’t decide their futures. They decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
— F.M. Alexander
“By your perseverance, possess your souls.”
— Luke 21:19
Every change in us is a little death. Something in us is no more, and is replaced by something new. For Christ, the way to the resurrection and return to the Father was the way of the Cross. It won’t be otherwise for us.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
— John 12:24
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
— Matthew 16:24-26
When we stand to give account for ourselves, “I was born this way” won’t matter. What did we do with what we found ourselves to be? What have we allowed Grace to make us into?
