Something to think about...

...when I read this post, from Jen at Conversion Diary, this morning I realized that it speaks to where I am spiritually.

Particularly this section:

I knew that the threat of losing favor with the Emperor would be more than a person like Pilate could take. ..." My "Emperor" was something different than Pilate's, of course: his was an actual man who had the power to make all Pilate's wildest dreams of riches and success come true; mine was a symbolic Emperor comprised of all my desires for things like comfort and pleasure and money and control and success and acclaim, an Emperor whose friendship I sought over doing the right thing on at least a daily basis.

Not that I'm struggling with any one great sin at this (thank God), but that I find myself seeking comfort more and more, not wanting to give up the little things that I think I need. I want things to be easy now... as if in striving towards holiness you get points for hanging around for a long time.

But in reading the saints, I know that the opposite is true... the closer you come to God, the more of what you believe to be yourself must be burned away. Purgation is never fun, nor comfortable.

I suppose these are good thoughts to have now, a week before Lent. Perhaps I'll actually buckle down and stick with my Lenten resolutions, instead of caving to the crowd of my "needs" and my desire for a comfortable life.