Signposts: Daily Devotions

Written by Renée Miller

Tuesday, April 22

So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
—1 Corinthians 10:12

Sometimes staying awake is not merely being aware of our feelings and the movement of creation around us. Sometimes it is taking a good hard look at our lives to see clearly the negative patterns of behavior that have become dangerously habitual. Because these patterns are so usual and consistent, we may no longer know that we are teetering precariously between spiritual sickness and spiritual health. We think that we are standing, while we may actually be falling.

We know how it works. While we are in the swirl of activity, we find it difficult to take the time for honest self-reflection about the harmful attitudes, words, and actions that have become so much a part of our lives. In this culture that looks askance at guilt and shame, there is little incentive to do this truthful self-reflection.

Unfortunately, in our attempt to avoid guilt and shame, we lose sight of the spiritual health for which we long. The goal is not to get stuck in the mire of guilt and shame, but to claim the strength and well-being that the Holy One offers us.

Why not wake up, take that hard look at yourself, and move toward the wholeness for which you were created?

O God, when I am falling into the darkness of my own unhealthy patterns, grasp me in the midst of my fall and let me turn my eye inward knowing that your love will bless me there.

The Signposts for April are written by Renée Miller and originally appeared on explorefaith.org in May 2004.