{"id":480,"date":"2021-02-03T09:42:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=480"},"modified":"2021-02-03T09:42:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T14:42:11","slug":"how-to-become-a-saint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/03\/how-to-become-a-saint\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Saint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Don Quixote<\/em>, the first part of which was published in 1605 by Miguel de Cervantes, is one of those wonderful books we all learned about in high school, but most of us have not yet read.

It is widely considered one of the finest novels ever written.  Only the Bible has been translated into more languages.

In a nutshell, Don Quixote <\/em>is the tale of an ordinary man \u2013 an incurable romantic \u2013 who has been reading way too many adventure stories.  He dreams of restoring the ideal of knighthood to a world that could care less about chivalry. 

He recruits a simple farmer named Sancho Panza to be his faithful squire.  Then he sets off, seemingly an utter fool, to become a true knight.

But a funny thing happens to Don Quixote as he pursues a life of humble heroism.  He actually succeeds. 

According to poet Mark Van Doren, one of the profound lessons of Don Quixote <\/em>is, \u201cthe way to become a knight is to act like a knight.\u201d  Or, as members of Alcoholics Anonymous and other Twelve Step groups often put it, fake it till you make it.<\/em>

Not all of us resonate with that catchphrase.  Why should I have to fake <\/em>something that any decent person ought to be doing sincerely<\/em>?

The answer is that it\u2019s much easier to act our way into feelings than to feel our way into actions.

I may have concluded that loving my enemies and giving generously to the poor are the right things to do.  But if I decide to wait until I feel like <\/em>loving that jerk who cost me my last job, or surrendering part of my paycheck to a family in need, I may be waiting for the rest of my life.

One of the boldest acts of faith is to begin to do now, as best I can, what I know to be right. 

Even though I don\u2019t yet really feel like doing it.<\/em>

It\u2019s impossible to say how many marriages and family relationships have been saved because one person decided, \u201cEven though there are a lot of things that are hurting in this relationship, I\u2019m going to go ahead and do the things I\u2019d be doing if I were truly in love.\u201d  On the other side of small gifts, little surprises, offers of affection, and choosing to be attentive, it\u2019s amazing how often the feelings <\/em>of love are gradually rekindled.

As Jesus puts it in John 7:17, \u201cIf anyone chooses to do God\u2019s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.\u201d

In other words, the choice to obey comes first.  Spiritual confidence comes later. 

Experience proves that the way to become a saint is essentially to start acting like a saint.

Or as Don Quixote and the folks at Nike might put it:  Just do it.<\/em>
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Don Quixote, the first part of which was published in 1605 by Miguel de Cervantes, is one of those wonderful books we all learned about in high school, but most of us have not yet read. It is widely considered one of the finest novels ever written.  Only the Bible has been translated into more languages. In a nutshell, Don… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[165,166],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-feelings","tag-sainthood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}