THE FITBIT
For my
birthday this year I received a Fitbit.
In case you don’t know, it’s a gremlin type thing that attaches to your
clothes and watches every move you make and records it. You could go online and join other people who
are being watched this way and then they will all know your secrets like how
many steps you took today or how many times you climbed stairs. There is also an application that lets you
compare notes on weight loss (or gain), which, I would never, ever use. However, it is a handy little device in some
ways and I know it’s meant to motivate me to stay active.
Wouldn’t it
be nice to have such a device to track my spiritual life? I could program it so that when I arise in
the morning it would read, “Say your
prayers!” It would keep track of how
often I thought of God during the day and if the number went too low it would
beep at me. It could count how often I
spoke kindly to people, or smiled at them.
It could also beep at me when I showed the other side of my character.
I admit the
Fitbit does help to remind me to keep moving and motivates me to do better so I
think a Spiritual Fitbit would be a great thing. Since I doubt there is going to be such a
thing anytime soon, it’s still up to me.
I’m retired now so I don’t have the excuse that I’m too busy to monitor
my daily spiritual life but when I was working I did find ways to keep myself
spiritually fit so to speak. I had the
18th Psalm on a printed card on my dashboard and I sang my favorite
motivational hymn: Lead Me, Guide Me, on the long commute to Novi. However, the rest of the day is a blur and at
night a quick thank you was all I
managed. I daresay most of us are like that but lucky for us we have a kind of
Spiritual Fitbit on the Internet! The
USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) will send the daily
readings directly to your inbox. Recently
I read from Samuel; “Speak Lord, your
servant is listening” and on another day,
“Do whatever your hands find to
do, for God is with you.” Words like
that will buoy you up during the workday.
In the car, Sirius Radio broadcasts the morning Mass from St. Patrick’s
Cathedral and on the website en.radiovaticana.va
you will find the words of Pope
Francis from his daily Mass. Those are
just some of the resources out there. We could even program reminders on our cell phones. With all the technology we have at our
disposal creating our own spiritual Fitbit might actually be possible.
Even so, we
know ourselves, we know there will be times when we will fail or get lax, but
luckily our God is a perfect lover. He
will wait for us, he will never tire of our failures, he loves us no matter
what, he forgives without exception and he is always waiting for us to come
home.
Blessings,
Carol Lemelin, OPA
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