{"id":9060,"date":"2014-03-10T17:50:58","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T21:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=9060"},"modified":"2014-03-10T17:50:58","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T21:50:58","slug":"what-do-we-choose-instead-of-light-pope-francis-bookclub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/03\/what-do-we-choose-instead-of-light-pope-francis-bookclub.html","title":{"rendered":"What do we choose instead of Light? [Pope Francis Bookclub]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2014, I\u2019m reading and blogging through Pope Francis\/Cardinal Bergoglio\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus<\/a>. \u00a0Every Monday, I\u2019ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you\u2019re welcome to\u00a0peruse them all<\/a>\u00a0and\/or read along.<\/em><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s chapter of Pope Francis\u2019s\u00a0Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus<\/a><\/em>\u00a0ends with two questions to consider in prayer and reflection:<\/p>\n

Do we pray to God for the grace of conversion?<\/p>\n

At what times in our lives have we preferred the darkness to the light?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My first thought, on reaching the end of the chapter, was, \u201cWell, no one can notice that easily when they prefer the darkness to the light, or they wouldn\u2019t prefer it in the first place.\u201d \u00a0But I hadn\u2019t quite finished verbalizing the thought before several examples from my own life obligingly popped into my head to contradict me. \u00a0It\u2019s seldom that I feel like I\u2019m deliberately choosing the darkness, but I am aware of not accepting or embracing the light.<\/p>\n

When I choose against the light, it usually doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019m picking darkness, but security or simplicity. \u00a0There\u2019s an attraction in having everything settled, even if it\u2019s being settled for the worse (\u201cI can\u2019t count on anyone\u201d \u201cPeople just don\u2019t like me\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll never get along with her\u201d etc). \u00a0I sometimes prefer to circumscribe my relationships and my options, even if I might accidentally be throwing out a positive outcome.<\/p>\n

In everyday life, I like to get things settled quickly, so there\u2019s no lingering worry or nagging task. \u00a0Instead of trying to remember to take out the recycling, I should put it in a bag and in front of the door now<\/em>. \u00a0If I need to reply to an email, I should write the response immediately<\/em>, even if I might actually send it later.<\/p>\n

But, in order to be a better person, I have to be a little comfortable being unsettled and in progress. \u00a0Chores and tasks I can finish cleanly, but almost no relationships can or should be that briskly mananged.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a tendency for religious people who don\u2019t know many atheists to straw man them by saying atheists must hate God, or be making a choice to reject Him. \u00a0But most atheists don\u2019t have such strong feelings about a being they don\u2019t believe in, any more than they would actively deny yetis.<\/p>\n

If you want to look for a way God can be squeezed out of a life, you don\u2019t need to look for the people verbally denying him, but for the lapses in the lives of people like me (Christian or not) who bundle away opportunities for grace as untidy, and succumb too often to the desire to have life be small enough to fit within the limits of my strength or knowledge, instead of wanting to grow to fit the wide world, instead.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2014, I\u2019m reading and blogging through Pope Francis\/Cardinal Bergoglio\u2019s\u00a0Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. \u00a0Every Monday, I\u2019ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you\u2019re welcome to\u00a0peruse them all\u00a0and\/or read along. This week\u2019s chapter of Pope Francis\u2019s\u00a0Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus\u00a0ends with two questions to consider […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":9062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[227],"class_list":["post-9060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morality-in-practice","tag-pope-francis-bookclub"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat do we choose instead of Light? 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