I have been on a wierd spiritual bender recently. I stopped last night when I got home and thought, "what have I done differently this past week to encourage such behavior? such a withdrawal from God? a self-removal from a godly lifestyle?" Turns out, the only thing that I have done differently is take off my medals (one of St. Benedict, the other of the Blessed Ever Virgin Mother).
Maybe you have read this blog long enough to recall a similar episode last semester. It seems that these medals are more than a springboard for prayer or a daily reminder that I belong to God. Neither of them are blessed. I do not consciously go around thinking "I'm not wearing my medals, let me cuss and talk about things I wouldn't normaly even think about thinking of."
A large portion of this thought process occurred during dinner. We got home late last night and mom was more upset than I was that I'd gotten rejected from the USC Clinical Psychology program. She was yelling about me, so I stayed up in my room until she came upstairs to shower. I was not about to eat dinner while she dragged me through the mud. I eat dinner alone around 9pm, so I brought an old, unfinished Bible study book I had bought upon just returning to the faith.
The back of the book has the 6 chapters of Ephesians. In the first chapter, I rested my eyes on a few verses.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world...(Eph. 1:3-4)
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His Grace, which He lavished upon us. (Eph. 1:5-8)
We are to be soldiers for Christ, spreading His Gospel of Peace, and walking circumspectly, avoiding the Devil as best as we can. Soldiers need two forms of information: (1) information on the terrain, and (2) information pertaining to the enemy.
I wasn't walking circumspectly. Fool me once, shame on him. Fooled me twice, the shame is now on me. I'll take it, because you know that I don't take Satan lightly. I don't give him undue power, but I also do not ignore the very real fact of his existance.
I love reminding myself that St. Thomas More once said that the foolish Devil cannot stand to be mocked. I'm wearing my medals now, and I'll mock him throughout the day. He's the only one I can tease, chide, mock and lie to without it all being a sin.
