I am like the Apostles in the boat with the sleeping Christ during the storm – I am completely unable to see the Glory of God in front of my eyes and instead I focus on the storm…
The other day, my little niece was admitted to hospital with a severe respiratory infection caused by the influenza virus.
She was really very sick indeed.
As part of her treatment from this miserable illness my niece was given a face mask and nasal prongs to deliver oxygen in high flow into her lungs. Because this was her mechanism of treatment, the nurses and doctors were very careful to monitor her vital signs and stats closely so that they could make decisions about whether to increase the flow and amount of oxygen or to decrease it.
Part of this monitoring meant that the monitors around my little niece’s bed would beep as an alarm if she was not receiving the right amount of oxygen into her lungs at any given time. While my niece was very very sick, she was not well enough to comment on the beeping. However, as she continued to improve and her health returned to almost normal, she became quite frustrated by the beeping.
In fact, as she became well, she would call to her mother and ask her to stop the beeping. So, my sister, her mother, would explain that is she took a deep breath then the beeping would stop. And my little niece tried that and figured it out. And very soon she was becoming annoyed by the beeping, and would start taking deep breaths to effectively shut down the sound that was causing her problems.
And I have been thinking about that today because it seems to me that there are lots of beeping sounds in my spiritual life caused when the equipment put into place to monitor my progress notices that I am doing things in an unhealthy spiritual manner.
For example, when I do not receive the Sacraments well or with a spirit of reverence, then things begin to go wrong in my life. I might find myself less involved in my silent internal prayer. I might find myself doubting in God and His Glory a little bit more. I might find myself more easily upset and more afraid of weathering the storm. These moments of unrest are like the beeping of the monitor that was attached to my little niece. And in this way, I am like the Apostles in the boat with the sleeping Christ during the storm – I am completely unable to see the Glory of God in front of my eyes and instead I focus on the storm…
And the only way to get myself back on track and to re-focus is to take long deep breaths and thereby restore the order of the machinery.
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about my niece. For it seems to me that I have been complaining about the beeping for a very long time without ever doing anything to fix the problem!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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