Have you ever started a project or endeavor that looked appealing at first, but turned out to be harder than you thought? Numerous times I have said to myself, “What have I gotten myself into.” I sometimes watch YouTube videos on how to fix things and I will say to myself, “That looks easy enough for me.” However, we all know that just because something looks easy, doesn’t mean it is.
Another thing that looks easy initially, but is much harder in reality is the task of getting to Heaven. We may think that as long as we don’t break any of the Ten Commandments, we will be fine. After all, God wouldn’t allow anyone who is relatively good to go to Hell, right? In reality, getting to Heaven requires more than to just be a good person.
There are plenty of atheists who are good people. Many other people believe all you have to do is accept Jesus Christ as your savior to be saved. This kind of thinking can get people in spiritual trouble. When we die, Jesus will ask us to give an account of how we used the talents that He gave us. If we don’t have anything to show or give back to Jesus other than the fact that we accepted Him, then He will most likely not be happy.
We need to put some effort into the most important endeavor that we will undertake. There are many things that distract us from accomplishing our goal. I am guilty of spending hours a day looking at my phone and wasting time. We need to be constantly stimulated and will turn to things like music, television, computer games, cellphones, or even books to keep us stimulated. While none of those things are inherently evil, they can all distract us from our main mission in life. Try to set aside some time during each day for God. If we don’t, then we will most likely not get around to doing anything to improve our spiritual life. Go to daily Mass. Say a rosary or chaplet of divine mercy. Read the Bible and reflect on the meaning or just sit in silence and talk to God. There are so many more ways to spend our time that will help us grow spiritually.
A lot of people take the approach of doing the minimum required to get by. Many people don’t like to go the extra mile in their careers or in their relationships and it shows. The divorce rate is sky high and people are complaining that they aren’t making enough money in their jobs. We can’t expect to be successful by having everything given to us. In general, the more effort we put into a task, the better chance we have of being successful at that task. If we really want to get to Heaven, we need to put in the work and effort. If we don’t let our priorities get out of order and stay focused on the end goal, we will find ourselves at the destination that we’ve been walking towards our whole life.
