Our dog Hilda loves nothing better than a quick tour through the shower, if the door is open.
We were busy working and didn’t notice that she had taken off for the bathroom. Nor did we realize that she had taken a tour of the shower until we found her downstairs, looking somewhat confused, a bar of soap lying on the floor of the den. Evidently somewhere between the shower and the den she discovered that her ill-gotten gain was no prize at all.
There are times when we bite off more than we can chew. There are other times when we bite off something we don’t want to chew at all.
Achieving balance in the spiritual life is often about slowing down long enough to examine our motives and the consequences of the choices we make. Slow down and when a “big” desire surfaces, ask yourself:
Why do I want this?
How will having it change my life?
Will those changes enhance or impoverish my spiritual life?
Is there a deeper desire behind the thing that I want that can’t be achieved by getting this?
Are there fundamental spiritual desires and needs that will go unaddressed by fulfilling this desire?
Or more basically, ask:
Is this desire “of God?”
Hilda didn’t have the capacity to ask those questions. She enjoyed the tour of the shower. The bar of soap was something she knew she shouldn’t have, but wanted. She had no way of asking, “Am I biting off something I don’t want to chew?”
We do.