Doing good things can be a TEMPTATION

Doing good things can be a TEMPTATION

Many of us receive many forward messages in WhatsApp groups. These messages used to be forward emails circulating for years on the Internet. Some are hoaxes while many more are outdated events. The same email came back in a span of more than four years. Had the plea be authentic, the baby would have died within 6 months but the junk kept circulating for years because of the good intention of people. Now, WhatsApp has become a new dumping ground for these good-intention junks. A week ago, I received a plea for prayers for Christians in Quaragosh because "ISIS has just captured it"! It was August 2014. Another message asked us to pray for 3 Chinese priests who were seriously injured in a car crash in Herbin. The car crash was supposed to take place in December 2013 or even a few years earlier. Nobody can be verify because it took place in mainland China. The idiom is really true: "The path to hell is littered with good intentions." Good intentions need the support of prudence which seems to be in short supply among believers.

In the last Spirituality Formation Programme, I understand myself a little bit better. I have known that being a perfectionist is not a good thing to myself and to my partners. Even though I try not to be demanding, I am aware that my body language has betrayed me. Again, the pride to get things done can distract me from doing more important things. Therefore, doing good things can be a temptation. This applies as least to me.
During this Lunar New Year holidays, the Lent Season begins. I should be more disciplined in my prayers and repentance. Yet, these couple of days, I have been struggling with dual booting my netbook, running Windows and Android on the same machine. That was the easiest part. The most challenging part is to mount a Windows drive in Android so that I don't have to copy another set of files into Android. So far, I have not overcome the hurdle. Yet, I have spent more than 4 days and it still comes to nothing. This blog is already 3 days overdue, though I still set it to Sunday (Feb 22). Much of my prayer time has been wasted on this fruitless pursuit which is a thorn in my heart. It is no use telling myself to let go because it will not go away until I can successfully mount my Windows drive in Android.

Dear Jesus, deliver me from this temptation. Amen.