effort

Over on Glory to God for All Things, Father Stephen reminds us that sometimes our excuses of being ‘only human’ often is used to cover over our lack of effort. We complain that things are not going well, but often that is because we refuse to make the effort. He says that God gives us the strength to try, and out of his grace uses our effort to make us holy.

I have noticed this lack of effort is very strong among those of us who go to church. We want to have great small groups. We want to have exciting outings. We want to have inspiring services. We want all of this, and often more, but very few of us are willing to make the effort.

A Hermit said, “We fail to make progress because we do not comprehend our capacity. We weary of the work we have started. We want to be good without making any effort.”

From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers