This phase, and this step, include a section on arriving to a decision. I am fascinated to find that even though we are not undertaking these exercises together, my bride and I have both agreed that we need to take advantage of a program that the parish is offering this spring. So we shall be enrolling in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program, which I am hopeful will help get us more on the same page concerning our financial goals and priorities in the context of our faith.
In a related insight that is very clearly not the sort of decision that the step calls for, I felt challenged by Jesus today. The retreat material makes clear that this decision involves a choice that isn't between good and evil, between righteousness and sin, but is rather more about determining what good path the Lord would have us walk. But that of course requires us to first choose righteousness. I had a sense during and after Mass of him asking me if I really think that the challenges and temptations that I deal with are greater than the ones he faced. Thoughts return to me that I've encountered over the course of the past months, including the idea that we are only tempted as far as we resist. In a sense, once we yield the temptation is reduced in intensity. Further, the same Holy Spirit who strengthened Jesus against his temptations indwells us, as well, so we have the same source of strength that Jesus had to answer our temptations with the truth of who we are in God.
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