A priest friend of mine loves Jeeping. He says it’s the spiritual lessons more than the nature and the mud that he actually enjoys. He told me that when you’re off-roading, you have to head STRAIGHT for the obstacles. It’s counter intuitive but the only way to get past a rock is to put your wheel straight on it, and ride over it. If you don’t, you’ll bottom out.
That’s the spiritual life isn’t it? When a problem comes our way we often want to run around it. But we have to go straight for it to get past it. Obstacles in a relationship? Go straight for it. Talk about it. Obstacles in your spiritual life? Get to confession. Obstacles in your emotional life? Talk about them.
Running around things only makes you bottom out. And sometimes when you’re on a really rough trail, things break. Mistakes are made. But that’s ok. It doesn’t have to break you. Half the adventure is putting things back together again.