Willfulness and Willingness

I am more and more persuaded that the way of the sacred adventure is a way of willingness rather than willfulness.  Willfulness is that mindset that says, "I will get this done, I will accomplish these goals, if I fall short I will try harder and harder and harder..."  Willfulness is an independent attitude.  It is the self, by sheer act of will, setting out to accomplish its purposes.  To be sure, some persons accomplish much by extraordinary efforts of will. Picture the athlete holding the gold medal and proclaiming, "I've accomplished this with sheer, unadulterated, hard work." Applied to religion, willfulness tries harder and harder to do the right and justify oneself.  And again, it should be noted that such persons might very well accomplish a great deal.  Some of the most religious people you've ever know might very well be willful people.

That said, I am more and more persuaded that the way of the sacred adventure, the way blazed by Jesus Christ, is the way of willingness.  Where willfulness is independent and ever committed to trying harder and harder, willingness is surrendered to a source of life and love greater than oneself.  A willing person is convinced that something great and beautiful is already taking place, even before she makes it her business.  He believes there is a power operative in the world that is bringing about the good, and his business is to consent to that power and cooperate with it.  A willing person is surrendered to the source of life.  I use the word 'surrendered' in the hope that we can discard its negative connotations.  I have in mind here the kind of surrender the sail experiences in relation to the breeze. 

Willingness is not passive.  Some of the most active people we've ever heard of--people like Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King--were, I believe, willing persons, surrendered to the source of life.  I should note, too, that not all willing persons are known primarily for their religious lives.  I think of artists and musicians whose lives and work have expressed something of this surrender. 

The  Apostle Paul invited us to be willing rather than willful when he repeatedly counseled us to walk not in the flesh, but in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The move from willfulness to willingness is a life-long journey, an ongoing process of conversion.  It is, I believe, the heart and goal of the Christian journey.