The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life

by James Martin

You might be tempted to move on, but places of resistance may be precisely where God wants to meet you. Resistance is another fruit of prayer, like emotions, insights, and memories. Resistance is often an invitation to pray or think more deeply about those feelings. Why do I feel resistance? Are you being called to be free of whatever holds you back from a deeper love of God? Why am I frightened of those dark valleys? Is it because you don’t trust God to care for you? Perhaps you can recall dark times in the past where you were cared for—by friends, family, coworkers—and see God’s hand in this too. Your attention to resistance can lead you to a new level of trust or self-knowledge. This resistance always reminds me of massage. Every few weeks, because of some chronic pain, I visit a massage therapist. Often she focuses on a sensitive spot on my back. That spot needs attention because that’s where the most “energy” is, as she says. It’s an important spot to pay attention to. It’s similar in prayer. When you feel reluctant to pray about a particular topic, it may mean you are resisting looking at something urgent, or a situation or memory that needs to be attended to. Maybe God wants to comfort you in that place or release you from some un-freedom or “disordered attachment.” That’s the reason there’s so much “energy” around those passages. In these moments, God offers us the chance to stop resisting and let ourselves be healed. And freed.

Rezistance. I sure have a lot of this.