During the past several weeks I have been sharing some thoughts about the struggles of Life’s Journey. I shared with you that anxiety about the future is one of the first struggles we face. The second struggle that we face, I believe, is the negative and irrational ideas that we have, especially from our childhood. These ideas, I find, paralyze people, making them incapable of truly enjoying life and the journey.

There are still other struggles that we must face on the journey. Enthusiasm and Discouragement can both be struggles.

Excessive or inappropriate enthusiasm is rooted in the insensitivity of the soul. Enthusiasm for the things of God is obviously not a bad thing It generates life and energy and leads people to do God’s work in the world. Many may think that enthusiasm is always a good thing. It can be a real obstacle in some instances. Sometimes a person is so captivated by particular emotional religious experiences that the pain, the need, the longing for the fullness of redemption is forgotten. Enthusiasm then becomes an obstacle on the journey. The struggle to maintain a balanced enthusiasm, one that celebrates the presence of God and at the same time is in touch with the elements of life that speak of God’s absence and of a longing for the God still to come. Listening to the experience of others, both past and present, getting in touch with oneself and acknowledging one’s limitations are helpful in giving balance to one’s enthusiasm.

There is a Latin phrase via media – the middle road – which many use to express this idea of spiritual balance. We have to be in balance to be in the presence of God.