Zits, Pimples, Acne

Last week I made a terrible mistake. Once in a while, when I am semi fed up with my skin, I'll take a pumice stone to my face. Yup, to my face. (Typically you use a pumice stone to remove dead skin, especially on the heal of your foot.) I did this last Thursday evening, possibly in attempt to remove more of the pig aroma settling into my skin from processing piglets. However, I failed to take care of my skin the next day. First, I did not wash my face in the morning before getting to work outside, leaving lots of oil sitting on fresh skin and open poors. Without a washing, my facial skin neither received sun-protective moisturizer. By he time afternoon rolled around, there was a slight pain in my face, due to the collected oil, dirt and slight sun-burn that had been acquired throughout the course of the day. Let's just say lots of zits developed on my face over the course of the weekend. Fortunately, they've since subsided and my face is not near as blotchy as it was.

At the beginning of the summer, I heard Fr. Gale give a homily during which he compared sins to acne or sits. As we don't want people to focus on the zits on our skin/face, so neither should we desire for them to see the blemishes on our souls, our sins. While I don't recall a lot else of what Fr. Gale said in that homily, I have dwelt on this topic just a bit more.

While I do my best not to pick at the zits on my face (yes, this is slightly embarrassing to type out and share, but bare with me), on occasions I do.  |Insert quote: "You'll have won a great battle if you lose the fear of letting yourself be known." -St. Josemaria Escriva |The temptation to pop a zit before it's ripe is much like the temptation to act or dwell upon an idea or plan out something the devil might be trying to get you to do. While I have much to learn on the discernment of spirits, one of my dear brothers enlightened me a bit on such a subject. At minimum, the devil, disguising himself as a angel of light will put forward into your thoughts (or thoughts shared by others), an idea. In my particular example, it twas a means by which I can serve. I'm sure this comparison can be applied on smaller or larger scales.

Another one of my dear brothers recently shared with me an idea for developing a Women's Discernment house of sorts in order to assist those young ladies who are discerning a vocation to the religious life. Basically a means to experience a life of community and formation without having to take the huge plunge of having sold all your belongings and having paid off all student loans. Sounds like a phenomenal idea. And, this past weekend at the Midwest Catholic Family Conference in Wichita, I heard numerous young adults speak of the challenges and difficulties that lie within women's discernment towards the religious life. When I first heard this idea, there was a part of me inside that screamed, "not me, not me." Yet, the idea was none-the-less appealing. This weekend provided more opportunity to further discuss and pray about how to go about carrying out said discernment house. Before parting ways, it dawned on me that none of the individuals conversing about this topic were on the same page. To me that was an indicator that a) I'm really not supposed to be a part of this and b) maybe this does not really need to happen, at least not yet, and c) not by such a young group of individuals. We think we know so much.

Thus, such temptations are like zits popping up on our skin. It is so tempting to pick at them or pop them. When you do, it leaves you with a scab or eventually scar tissue and the opportunity for more zits. I compare the discernment house to the double pimple on my right cheek this last weekend. If only I would have let it ripen before trying to squeeze the bacteria and dead cells out, I wouldn't have had such a monstrosity on my face for three straight days...

Oh well.
Lesson learned.  (take care of your skin and discern God's will)
Have a blessed day.