When you struggle relying on your own abilities, thinking, “Yes, I may have flaws, may lack talents, may not be good enough, but, still, I will overcome this problem”, you struggle in vain. This is not a “profitable” struggle; it’s actually harmful.
Let’s say that you realize you don’t love Christ, and that you act as if you don’t want to love Him. You see for yourself that you are not the kind of per- son who has found his God and follows hard after Him. Would it matter if you humbled yourself and said: “Now I realize, my God, how low I have fallen and how sinful I am, how much I am possessed by my ego, by egoism. How could it be possible for your grace to come into me”?
This is how man reaches self-awareness and starts to prosper spiritually, little by little.
The worldly spirit is having it all your own way.
Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos (†)
From the book: Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos, “SPIRITUAL MESSAGES” Panorama Thessaloniki, 2017
