26.2 miles. It seemed like an impossible goal for someone who had never run more than a couple of miles. But, I determined I was going to run a marathon, even though I had little knowledge of what it would take to accomplish that goal. What I found out (months later) was that waking up at 4 AM to run for 3 hours in single digit weather was what it would take. It meant ice in my beard. It meant physical pain. It meant mental fatigue and struggle like never before. It was hard. Really hard. Still, it was so very good for me. I had strengthened my body, mind, and even my soul as never before. Doing something very difficult changed me.

I once made fun of runners. “You ran 10k? Was someone chasing you?” But, I also admired them. For someone of my build (not thin), I never thought I could do it too. The first week I struggled to run a few miles. The next week I ran further. Then more and more. I had moments of doubt, weakness, and injury.

Yet, I cannot explain to you the feeling of accomplishment that I felt when I crossed the finish line. It is amazing. That feeling doesn’t come from doing easy things, it can only be earned by doing very difficult ones and watching all your hard work pay off.

There are a lot of reasons I shouldn’t be a runner. I am chubby. I have a chronic bad back. I have other obligations (and therefore time is stretched). I have arthritis (which was so bad that I couldn’t run much at all for a few years). But, the reality is, I AM a runner. I have now run 7 half marathons (my preferred distance) in addition to 1 full marathon and several shorter races.

Why all this talk of running? Because running is still hard for me and because it is hard for me, I am a better person when I run. I am aching while writing this, because I ran for the first time in 10 days yesterday (I was sick). But, I know it was a good thing to get out there are run. When I am dedicated to pushing myself for another half marathon, my prayer life is usually deeper, I am mentally sharper, I am more diligent at work, I order my priorities better, etc.

Ease and comfort are barriers to growth and maturity.
Growth and doing difficult things go hand-in-hand.

SPOILED?
Think of what happens when a child is spoiled? They never mature as they ought to. The same goes for you and me. When we are constantly at ease and have comfort, then we tend to become spoiled too. We stop growing. We stop desiring greatness. We throw away, ignore, or downplay the call to become saints and evangelists.

But you and I were made to be great saints. Every other call is secondary!
You are called to holiness and holiness isn't just about willing yourself to change, but about a deep relationship with the one you love most. Holiness must be shared with others. The urgency of spreading the Gospel comes not out of obligation, but out of great love of God, which is born from intimacy with him. None of this comes easily.

After St. Francis de Sales became a priest, he felt called to evangelize 60,000 former Catholics who had left the faith. He got doors slammed in his face. He was run out of towns. He was rejected and yelled at. He suffered from bloody frozen feet, from walking through snowy mountains. In the end, it is estimated that 40,000 people returned to the Catholic Church through his hard work and suffering!
40,000 souls because he was willing to do something difficult!

What about you and me? How can we root out the ease and comfort and do something difficult so that we can grow? Here are some tips:

1 - Be Honest With Your Failures and Limitations
God knows who you are and what your sins, wounds, weaknesses, and limitations are. So, be honest with yourself. Where are you weak? Where do you need to grow? Have you spent time in prayer asking God to show you the path to growth?

Growth should never just be about willing yourself into being better. It should involve discernment of how God wants you to grow and then an abandonment of our will to God’s will. You do this through daily personal prayer and the frequent reception of the Sacraments. It is also done by moving forward once we know what God wants of us. Tell him, "yes, God, I will do what you ask of me." Then do it.

Here are some questions to get you thinking:

• Do you find that your heart is more concerned with how you feel rather than the things you know are true and good?
• Do you allow your emotions, desires, or passion rule your decisions instead of discerning what God wants for your life and then following his will, wherever it leads?
• Do you spend money on eating out, coffee, entertainment, or luxuries & then don't have enough to tithe?
• Do you spend so much time on social media, Netflix, and/or games that you then don't have time to pray?
• Do you spend your energy in pursuit of worldly success, money, or power & then don't have anything left for family, friends, service, and community?
• Do you seek out ways to be liked and loved or do you seek to love others, without concern as to what you get back from them?
• Do you find that pride keeps you from seeking out help from others or do you allow yourself to sit at the feet of another (or others) to learn and grow from them?
• Do you shy away from accountability from peers, because you are scared that it might mean you need to change or do you make time to pray and grow in community / accountability with others?
• Do you spend mental energy on learning about interests, hobbies, sports, music, etc & then have little interest in the learning the Word of God and the teachings of the Church?
• Do you concern yourself with building up a reputation and being accepted by others & then avoid sharing your faith, so as to avoid possible divisions?
• Do you love the praise of the world & then the praise of God is not enough?
• Do you regularly seek opportunities to sin & few to repent?
• Do you find your comfort is more important than the salvation of others?
• Do you spend enough time in prayer?
• What unhealthy habits do you need to root out?
• What healthy habits do you need to establish?
• Do you need to exercise more?
• Do you need to eat healthier?

2 - Stay Confident In The Truth About What God Wants Of You
I once spent almost a year praying “what do you want of me God?” Now, there is nothing wrong with that question, because it is a great question. The problem was that I already knew what God wanted of me and was really avoiding listening to the answer.

God wants me to be a saint.
That scares me.
Me? A saint? But, it is true. Not just some pie-in-the-sky idea of holiness that is unattainable. Not just saccharin sweet piety. Not just going through the motions. But, real honest holiness that rests deep in my heart. That is what he wants and that is frightening - because it won’t come without costing me everything I cling to. It costs my will.

But, it is also the best thing for me, because ultimately, God only wants good things for me, even if the process of getting me to those things is really really hard. This is part of the reason we need to do difficult things, to prove to ourselves that God can accomplish something bigger than we think...through us.

So, here are some promises we need to cling to:

• You are loved and lovable.
• You belong to God.
• You are God’s son / daughter.
• You are meant to be a great saint.
• You are made for holiness.
• You are made to share the Good News of Jesus with others.
• You are capable.
• You are gifted.
• You are called.
• You have great strength within you, by God’s grace.
• You are redeemed.
• You are not an orphan, but have a home in heaven.
• You have a future full of hope (even if it may be hard).

3 - Don’t Make Changes Until You Are In Consolation
One of the great Saints, St. Ignatius Loyola, gives us a great guide in how to grow in holiness. One of these guides is the understanding of consolation vs desolation. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, I suggest this article to get you started. Suffice it to say, we never want to make any big decisions or changes to the way we operate while we are in desolation.

Now, there is an assumption her - that is, that you are praying daily. So, if you are not praying and you are in desolation, the solution may be to repent and start praying. While this would be a change, there can be no spiritual consolation without prayer.

4 - It Takes Time, Effort, Courage, and Perseverance To Get In Shape
Just like you won’t be able to run far if you have never run before, the same can be said about relationships, prayer, evangelization, etc. You need to plan appropriately, practice, and stair-step your way to success. No great saint or evangelist ever started out great. They all had to work on virtue, habits, healing, etc. You do too.

So, what is your plan and where are you headed? If your goal is to be holy, then write down what it should look like for you to be a saint in 20 years. What do you want God to say about you (not necessarily others)? What do you want God to accomplish through you? Dream big and then write it all down. Don’t be shy about it either.
-Maybe it includes being the instrument of God that means your community is renewed.
-Maybe it is helping friends and family who have stopped going to church.
-Maybe it is starting saying difficult things to others, in charity, that have needed to be said for a long time.
-Maybe it is beginning to invest in relationships, because you see them lacking in your parish.
-Maybe it is letting someone else mentor you, so that you grow.

I wonder what kind of plans St. Francis de Sales had when he first set out to evangelize the tens of thousands of former Catholics...

However big or small - let God into your plans. Turn those dreams over to God, because ultimately, if you succeed, it will be because it is God’s will those things happen not your own. You need to express your desires to God, but freely let him take them, shape them, and then re-forge them into something better. This is because your holiness is nothing less than being a vessel of God’s grace into the world. This takes a surrender to God. Pope Benedict echoes all these things when he said:

“Yes, dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful. We are not the product of blind chance or absurdity; instead our life originates as part of a loving plan of God. To abide in his love, then, means living a life rooted in faith, since faith is more than the mere acceptance of certain abstract truths: it is an intimate relationship with Christ, who enables us to open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God.”

“If you abide in the love of Christ, rooted in the faith, you will encounter, even amid setbacks and suffering, the source of true happiness and joy. Faith does not run counter to your highest ideals; on the contrary, it elevates and perfects those ideals. Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.”

“Nowadays, although the dominant culture of relativism all around us has given up on the search for truth, even if it is the highest aspiration of the human spirit, we need to speak with courage and humility of the universal significance of Christ as the Savior of humanity and the source of hope for our lives. He who took upon himself our afflictions, is well acquainted with the mystery of human suffering and manifests his loving presence in those who suffer. They in their turn, united to the passion of Christ, share closely in his work of redemption.”

“Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world.”

“I urge you to ask God to help you find your vocation in society and in the Church, and to persevere in that vocation with joy and fidelity. It is a good thing to open our hearts to Christ’s call and to follow with courage and generosity the path he maps out for us.”
-Pope Benedict XVI