Following directions has never been one of my strong accomplishments, unless the directions were short and complete before my ADHD got up and left the building! As I have come to know the Lord, His instructions are short and sweet! “Whosoever is willing to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and keep on following Me.” [Mk. 8:34] Okay, short but the sweetness comes later. It seems the path our Lord travels is going to require that I get in shape with spiritual disciplines, that I love others more than myself and I become more sacrificial day by day.
Sacrifice is not usually something that comes easily for me; it still can be an effort at times. After all I have made commitments and have my own family to tend too. But our Creator gives us the choice to wrestle with and as St. Theophylact records: “He did not say, ‘Whosoever is unwilling, let him die,’ but ‘Whosoever is willing.’ ‘For,’ says He, ‘I force no one. For I call him to good things, and not bad things that I should even compel him.’” [P.G. 123:213CD (col. 576).
The world has many things to offer, some good and some quite questionable, however everything will sometime offers us an opportunity to grow closer to Christ. Maybe we should call this opportunity “MIRACLE GROW”. As the Gospel writer reports: “For what shall it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his soul? [Mk. 8:36] Or maybe simpler stated, some distasteful things in this world can help us grow in faith and I should recognize them as possible fertilizer; although when dealing with some types of fertilizer, some precautions may need to be practiced.
The scripture records: “in Whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,” [1 Pe. 3:19] St. John of Damascus explains: “Just as the Sun of Righteousness [Mal. 4:2] rose for those upon the earth, so likewise did He bring light to those who sit under the earth in darkness and shadow of death [Is. 9:2; Mt. 4:16], in order that just as He brought the message of peace to those upon the earth, so did He bring that of deliverance to the captives and that of sight to the blind [Is. 61:1; Lk. 4:18]. And to those who believed the Cause of everlasting salvation, while to those who did not believe a reproach for their unbelief, so He might become the same to them in Hades: ‘That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth [Phil. 2:10].’And thus after He had freed those who had been bound for ages, straightway He rose again from the dead, showing us the way of the resurrection.” [Exposition on the Orthodox Faith, Bk. III, Ch. XXIX, in Nicene, 2nd Ser., IX:72, 73.]
I was remembering watching a follywood drama about the great Apache Chief Geronimo and the writer added a very dramatic line before the great chief went into battle against enormous odds, the actor stated: “today is a good day to die!” I have often reflected on those words as I struggle with life choices, not in a sinful way but in a sacrificial manner. More of Him, much less of me! There lies the secret to MIRACLE GROW! Here I am Lord, send me!
Fr. Gabriel Weller 10-4-2026
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