Yellow Slide

Hello Zeteo community!

I have a bit of a busy week ahead of me, but I saved the best part of Father Michael's talk for last, so I knew I needed to write a post today. I hope you enjoy his insights on discernment as much as I have - it has definitely been food for thought for me.

God bless,

Olivia

Week Three: Yellow Slide

Last week, Tharin and I brought Jerome to the swimming pool. When he was a tiny baby, he loved to be held in the hot tub, and would turn into a content ball of mush in our arms. Lately, he has been discovering his independence and spends most of the time we are in the hot tub trying to clamber out and back to the yellow slide.

At the pool, Jerome is fearless. He just mastered the art of climbing the four steps to the kid slide, and would most definitely plummet down it himself if we were not there to guide him. He does not yet have a concept of how he would sink to the bottom without daddy on the other end of the slide to catch him. He has no concept of the danger, but because we as his parents know his limitations, we are able to protect him from this unawareness.

We give him the independence we can, allowing him to waddle on his own in the shallow part and to climb those four steps - but we know there are simply things he is not capable of doing on his own, not yet, even if he does not yet understand his own smallness. So we catch him when he tries to go too deep, and we hold our arms ready when he gets to the top of the slide.

This is good analogy for my relationship with Christ. An important part of growing in Christian maturity is growing in our understanding of our human weakness, of our smallness, of our humbleness. Like Jerome at the swimming pool, God is holding us afloat whether we realize we need Him to or not and just as Jerome will eventually come to understand that he is too little for the deep end just yet, so must we develop a realistic view of our human shortcomings.

We all have yellow slides in our lives - things we are enticed by, that we think we should be able to do on our own. An important thing to realize about God is that He is deeply respectful of our free will, as Father Michael mentioned. God will respectfully and gently tell us if we are not ready for something, but ultimately leaves the choice up to us.

In Christian maturity, we must come to an understanding of our limitations, and learn to listen for the promptings of God and certainly the promptings of the deceiver. Satan, the father of lies, is intent on leading us into pride, away from the truth of our humanity and into a false belief that we do not need God. He is intent on convincing us we can take the yellow slide on our own, that we do not need God to catch us at the bottom.

Unlike God, the deceiver takes advantage of our freewill. If we interpret the promptings in our lives we are able to discern where the influence is from. Father Michael explained that promptings from the deceiver will contain lies, will feel seductive, accusatory or threatening, whereas God's voice is always respectful, always an invitation. He invites us to chose to love Him and to let Him catch us, and delights in our sincere response to this invitation.

In this swimming pool of life, are we realistic with where we need God to keep us above water? Are we listening to His voice when He is telling us we are not yet ready, to step away from the deep end? Or are we distracted by another voice, a seductive voice, telling us we are capable of doing it on our own, and getting ourselves in over our heads as a result?

I know that if I, in humility, am able to let the Lord lead and propel me, to give me the swimming lessons I so desperately need, I may someday be ready for the yellow slide in my life. Or likely something even greater. For the time being, I have the opportunity to lay back in His strong arms, and to know that I am safe.