The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Crippled by ‘EFE’ disease
Are you crippled by the EFE disease? It won’t work…. I’m afraid to fail… there’s not enough money; it’s not meant to happen… it takes too much time. Excuses, Excuses, the ability to Excuse for Everything!
Some excuses come disguised as perfectly rational, realistic and innocent thoughts to help us feel better about our behavior and let us give into our feelings and emotions. They do not prevent us from doing what we really want to do but keep us from growing up, or getting out of the box or leaving a problem, doubt or fear.
They basically keep us down and in a place that we do not necessarily want to be. But, we must admit we all have an incredible ability to justify why we can’t do something. Our reservoir of reasons for NO, or excuses for not trying, can be endless! Even the example in the Gospel of today and whose fault or sin is it that the man is blind? Perhaps no one is to blame but that difficult situations are present for us to grow from or out of. The man’s blindness is cured, but the blindness of those who won’t believe in Jesus remains. How often do you grope, stumble and not walk assured of your direction and need to stop and pray and get your direction from Jesus.
No excuses — just stop and pray.
That is the point of Lent — to pray and let the light of the Lord in — to make us better persons and not use emotional excuses for not growing!
Whenever we step out into the light from a dark place, it takes our eyes a while to adjust and really see what is around us. That is the real lesson of today’s readings, it takes time. We need to be patient and trust in the Lord and maybe walk slowly in our darkness or our early morning or evening light but no excuses WALK.
To pray in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.”
These are not just nice, emotional words to make God happy, but to move us to trust and act in the Lord! We are to rise up from the dead and be children of light with patience and persistence to gain new insight and sight from the Lord Jesus. We also make many excuses because we mainly see the physical and not the spiritual or the heart.
We often suffer from spiritual or heart-blindness and that leads to our making excuses. It may take prayer and time to ask for conversion and forgiveness to allow the light of others into our lives and to trust them. We, not they, need to be OPEN. We may need to shed some of what we have by our almsgiving and sacrifice. Openness takes time and the ability not to make excuses, but to be vulnerable.
This may be the week to grow up and not walk as a 2- or 3-year-old, who has learned to say NO.
This is not the time to push for control, my way and jealousy, but to allow YES to come forth, and the light of Yes to guide, direct and light our way out of blindness, into a new Christian journey.