Detachment: What Did You Love Most?

The other day in my small women’s group, one of the ladies shared a story with us about a priest who says that God will ask you one question on judgement day.

She told us that this priest says that God will ask, “What did you love most in your life? Because whatever it was that you loved most… that’s what you’ll get.”

Have you heard that before?

It got me thinking about how much love, or energy, or emotion, or time I spend on things that aren’t God, aren't of Him, and things that don’t glorify Him.

TV shows, magazines, books, material items — clothes, shoes, jewelry, money, gossip… That’s a great deal already of some things that are in my life that don’t glorify God. These are some things that actually take my time away from loving God and spending time with Him. These are things that I use to fill the void that only God can fill.

As hard as I try, these things just don't bring lasting fulfillment either. They never can; they are temporal by nature. Love, on the other hand, is eternal, and is what we should be pursuing.

Sure, there are certainly ways that those things I mentioned above can be used to glorify God — beauty can glorify God, money can be used to help people who need it the most — and in that way, charity and generosity can glorify God, TV shows about people living out their faith joyfully can be used to glorify God, and clothes that reveal the dignity and true beauty of a woman can glorify God.

But it’s also somewhat imperative to realize when they’re not doing that, and when they do not lead us closer to Him. And as hard as it can be, it’s also somewhat imperative to detach ourselves from those things so that we can get closer to Him. Because the things we surround ourselves with, the things we "own," and the things we invest in do impact the state of our hearts -- and our souls.

I shared the following quote the other day, and it’s also what got me into thinking more about detachment… It’s from a book I just got, “30 Days with Teresa of Avila.” (Daniel Burke, Anthony Lilles). "Shed as much as we can as quickly as we are able to. Give to anyone who asks. Love nothing in this life but God. Pursue only God and His will. This is the only hope of true and lasting peace in this life, and joy in the ascent to God."

This was the reflection for the day: to practice detachment from the things that keep us away from God.

What are those things for you?

In the past few weeks, one of those things for me has been despair. I need to detach myself from despair to grow closer to God.

By detaching ourselves from the things that keep us further from God, we will become better at truly loving Him — by actively working on our relationship with Him, and our relationship with things of this world; there is a true order and we must pursue putting Him first.

And if we try this, and keep trying this (because let’s admit it, there are times we are bound to fail), then we’ll be putting into practice loving Him the most, so that when He asks us that one question, we can say, “It was You. We loved You the most.”