I’ve often thought about the challenges we face as we try to integrate faith with our everyday lives. It’s a complex journey, one filled with struggle and moments of doubt. Sometimes “the faith” burns us out. Sometimes it feels like noise or static. Sometimes it feels like an obstacle to the way we want to live. These things may be more or less true for you, depending on the status of your life, your religious formation and your lifestyle. But it occurs to me that many have this sense of difficulty with the Catholic faith, in practice. Many people find it hard to reconcile the disparate elements of their existence—faith and the human experience. It’s a theme that resonated deeply with me after receiving a comment on a video I published to YouTube from a person expressing signs of this difficulty, and I felt compelled to share my thoughts and experiences on the matter in my latest podcast episode (“Faith and Fumbles” – Episode 43). I’ve presented a small portion of that segment in this video clip above. What you’re reading is a composition and summary of what I talked about in that 30 minute segment (the video is only 13 minutes of that segment).
The Challenge of faith in daily life
It may seem strange to say that integrating religion into life is difficult, considering that we, as humans, are naturally inclined toward religion. It’s how God made us. Religion has been the path and connection to God since Adam and Eve, even before the fall. Yet, it is that very integration that often eludes us now in our fallen state. Sometimes we live our secular lives, going through the motions without a hint of spiritual exercise because it seems like a foreign object in our lives.
A significant cause or reason behind this is that we have been conditioned—for whatever reason—to live our lives in isolation from our religion. Maybe we pray occasionally or attend church on Sundays, but for most of us, those experiences are isolated from our daily routines. We don’t’ see our religion as being a necessary component of our whole lives and our whole being. It’s this separation that underlies much of the difficulty we face.
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(Also available everywhere else you get your podcasts)
As I reflect on this, I recognize the natural ease with which secularism fits into our lives. It’s easy because it requires no effort, and our fallen nature likes not making an effort. Doing things that connect us with God (religion, spirituality), like setting aside time for prayer or moral reflection, can feel challenging and unnatural. Learning to balance these aspects—the secular and the religious—is a task we must all undertake if we hope to live truly fulfilling lives, and to ultimately be with God forever in Heaven.
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Finding the Rhythm
One might think that arriving at faith would immediately ease this struggle, but often the challenges multiply. Some people arrive at faith (converts, or reverts to Catholicism) after many years of living without it. Spiritually we get fat and lazy, accustomed to inordinate indulgence of our disordered appetites. Most of our appetites are actually good, but we indulge them in ways that are progressively and increasingly imbalanced or disordered. For example, eating is a good. The pleasure of eating is a good. But overeating and overindulgence turns an objective good into something objectively bad. To be called out of that behavior after it has become a habit or norm in our lives effectively introduces pain in our lives. The physical pain of denial of something that brings us pleasure, and the spiritual pain of something that produces a psychological pleasure.
“Religion, particularly Catholicism, involves stepping out of our comfort zones and confronting our weaknesses.”
Religion, particularly Catholicism, involves stepping out of our comfort zones and confronting our weaknesses (embracing virtue, and rejecting vice). For some, the journey from a secular life to one grounded in faith can be daunting. Why? Because we fail to integrate religion with our ordinary life and lifestyle—we do each of them in isolation from the other.
I’ve come to realize that integrating faith with life is a constant effort, a rhythm and strategy we must each discover for ourselves. It’s a strategy we personalize, one that aligns our faith with our lived experiences. My own path hasn’t been without its challenges—in fact, I’ve often found myself wrestling with my own fallen nature. Yet, over time, I have learned to navigate these difficulties with a greater sense of peace and understanding. In other words this integration of life and religion isn’t always painful. Eventually they fit, like two separated halves coming back together. And that whole reality elevates our whole humanity out of the muck of our fallen nature. The elevation out of that “muck” is another thing that can be daunting and painful at first, because ultimately we all like the muck. But we only like it because it’s the only thing we know. Climbing out of the muck brings pain and trial, but it brings us to the fullness of who God made each of us to be.
Why Must It Be This Way?
Why must the path to integrating faith with life be so arduous? The truth is, I don’t have a definitive answer. It’s simply the way God intended, leading us through struggle to attain understanding and depth of belief. I’ve learned to embrace this uncertainty and the growth that comes with it, and I have learned that while the road is long and arduous, the goal isn’t actually the destination, it’s the journey. It’s not about arriving at the end of the arduous road (Jesus manages that part) it’s about what we learn as we traverse that road. That is what forms saints, reforms our fallen human nature, and turns us into persons more like God.
Though the journey is fraught with challenges, it’s reassuring to know that as long as we keep moving forward, the destination is assured. That’s the real work; the “walking” not the “arriving”
Embracing this journey means enduring discomfort, but it also promises the discovery of a deeper, more meaningful existence. Doubt me? Put it into practice and see for yourself.
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