Last week, I spent time exploring the idea of being a general in Satan’s army.
Good times.
I’ve got one more helpful tip for using the devil’s actions against him.
(Then maybe we’ll turn our attention to cute lambs and good shepherds.)
I think it’s safe to say that, for most of us, our lives are busy. Filled. Packed to the brim like a Volkswagen teeming with circus clowns trying to bend the laws of physics.
One thing I like to remind myself is that if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re probably trying to do too much.
When I read the Gospels, I don’t observe Jesus in a hurry over anything. He regularly found time to sneak away for some quiet time. He fell asleep in the middle of a storm while His apostles were panicking for Him to do something already. He took the long way to places. He let his disciples sit in their confusion from time to time, not feeling the need to clarify his message, even as some of them walked away. He told Martha to take a chill pill and stop running around like a chicken with her head cut off. (My translation, obviously.) And later, when her brother Lazarus was gravely ill, Jesus took his sweet time, only to arrive “too late.”
The point is, if Jesus — the actual Savior of the world — wasn’t rushing around stressed out like a person juggling too many things, then if we feel overwhelmed, we — not the savior of anything! — are probably trying to do too much.
And yet, here’s the problem. The “too much” we are trying to do all seems like good stuff. It’s not always obvious what God would have us let go of.
The answer, of course, is unique to each of us. Getting to the bottom of it requires prayer and spiritual direction. But here’s a question that has helped me, and it goes back to an analysis of the devil’s tactics:
What is the devil never trying to trick you into?
When I take a close, prayerful look at my life and calendar, I see a lot of important things. Some of them are tasks the devil has tricked me into thinking can only be done by me. (Hello pride!) Then there’s an endless stream of temptations distracting me from more important tasks. This can be anything from scrolling social media (a five minute break that turns into a fifty-five minute deep dive into whatever happened to that obscure child actor in that one 80s movie), to scanning news headlines (it’s obviously important that I am in the loop on everything going on in Greenland, in case I’m consulted), to suddenly feeling the urge to sort my 144 colored pencils into a more pleasing arrangement.
But you know what?
The devil never tries to trick me into going to a daily Mass.
He never tries to trick me into praying the rosary.
He never tries to trick me into spending time in adoration.
And never once has the devil ever tried to trick me into spending more time in my studio.
My studio is one of the places I feel most alive. I’ve come to see it as a sanctuary and an apostolate. It’s where I use the gifts God gave me to make things that bring light into a dark world. It’s one of my favorite places to be.
And the devil is constantly serving up reasons I should be somewhere else.
There is always something else more “urgent,” “prudent,” or “practical” to do.
For years, he fooled me into putting it off, under the guise of “saving the best for last,” which only allowed him to flood me with a never-ending swarm of small tasks that slowly ate away studio time to almost nothing.
Meanwhile, year after year, I’ve come out of my annual year-end retreat feeling strongly that God was urging me to spend more time in the studio.
Because I love spending time in my studio, it’s easy to be duped into thinking of it as self-indulgent. If it truly was, I finally realized, the devil would probably go out of his way to trick me into spending more time there.
Yet he’s done this exactly zero times.
I’m not saying we should shirk responsibility in favor of pursuing things that make us feel good.
I am saying we should pay close attention to the things that light us up. Enthusiasm comes from “en + theos,” which means “God within.”
St Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”
Which also seems like something the devil would be very much against.
They say if the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy. He’d prefer to keep us busy with dumb things, but he’s willing to trick us into doing good things, which is worth it for him, as long as it’s keeping us from the best things.
One question helps me figure out what those “best things” are.
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