It takes a lot of effort to start a new exercise routine. Sometimes people are not ready, but when they are, it is a beautiful thing to behold. As they learn to move in new ways, you can almost see the pathways expand in their brain and body as they respond to the new impetus. When it clicks, it is pure joy to help that person move better and get stronger.

So let’s look at effort in our spiritual lives. We know that it takes effort to start anything new and to build strong relationships with people in our lives. It’s the same with growing more in tune with God’s will for our lives. We have to give time and effort to God so that he can work in us and through us.

Our Catholic faith teaches us that God responds to our efforts. It might not be in the way we expect, in fact most likely, it will not be our way at all. In faith, we trust that he recognizes even our tiniest desire to give more effort to our relationship with him and with our neighbor — even if our response is slow and weak.

We had a discussion in bible study recently about allowing God to be the pilot in our lives. It seems that many of us were catechized in a way that places us as the pilots with God as the co-pilot — myself included. It is interesting to take this to prayer and ask God to show us where we are depending too much on our efforts, where we are holding back something from him (and why) rather than allowing God to be fully in charge of our lives.

It is good to remember that God is the one who inspires us to make any effort in the first place — and that thought makes me crazy happy. Our effort is the result of cooperating with God’s grace received through the Sacraments, in prayer and scripture study, and in loving and serving others. He is first and we are second. He is pilot and we are co-pilots, no matter what is going on in our lives.

St. Teresa of Avila said, “The feeling remains that God is on the journey too.” 

Do we give God full reign of our efforts on this journey, in all matters, temporal and spiritual? Do we trust that his way, and our effort to cooperate with his grace, will lead us to greater joy, freedom and peace on our journey to eternal life with him?

From the second Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, 1:11, “To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith.”

God brings fulfillment to our efforts. He makes our crooked lines straight. He is almighty and all powerful and has our best interest in mind. He love us and doesn’t give up on us — and I pray that we don’t give up on him — no matter what is going on in our hearts, families, parish, community, country or world. 

May we make every good effort to know, love and serve God, using the gifts and talents that he has given us so he can do amazing things with us and through us. Cooperation with his grace is a beautiful thing to behold.