“No” and “Yes”

Where are our idols today? Money, fame, the next iPhone to read this reflection on? I think it’s deeper. It is where we spend our time. Are we steadfast to our vocation? We all have moments where the joyfulness of our well-discerned ‘yes’ fades a bit with the grief of ‘what could have been.’ So, we chase the ‘idols’ of all the other things we could be doing.

This is one of the great joys of our participation in the Body of Christ. It is a choice. And choices always mean saying ‘no’ to some and ‘yes’ to others.

What in your life needs to be discerned towards a fuller “yes” in the participation of the Body of Christ? What idols, visible or invisible, are you chasing? My participation in the body of Christ is to live out this life. As very ordinarily blessed as it might seem today.

—Emily Schumacher-Novak lives in Milwaukee, WI, and works in Jesuit Higher Education and Ignatian Spirituality.