The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Between Two Yearns: The Spirit and The Flesh

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Have you ever felt stuck between the desires of the spirit and the desires of the flesh? Today, Jeff shows us how to overcome the constant tension we feel between our yearning for heaven and our yearning for the things of this passing world. By taking us back to Scripture, he shows us how to face this battle and walk according to God's purpose for our lives. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this episode, Ave Maria University (https://tinyurl.com/yycd3xng) Snippet from the Show "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavens show, episode 210, between two yearns. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Hey, thanks for joining me once again. You know, every single day, all throughout the day, we find ourselves at a crossroads when it comes to decision-making, driven by two yearns. One is for the flesh here on earth. The other is for the spirit which is eternal in every single day.

We're making those decisions. What are we going to give our time to? What are we going to give our treasure, our talent to, our heart to? and it never stops, does it? It never seems to stop. And I want to talk to you about that decision between two urns and a couple of suggestions on what you can do to make the right choice, the right choice. Hey, coming up in June, we're not going to talk about this too much more because it's right around the corner. Father Mike Schmitz and I are going to go to the Holy Land. and Andrew and Sarah Swafford are going with us, Ali Ali is going with us, and Taylor Tripodi.

It's going to be a wonderful time. If you want more information, go to my website, jeffcavens.com. You know, I remember what Jesus said is he taught his disciples in the gospel of Matthew 26 and Mark 14. He said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He kind of describes, doesn't he, this life between two yearns. Our spirit is willing. We want to walk with the Lord.

We want to do right. We want to walk in righteousness. But our flesh is weak. And so we're pulled towards another yearn, which is the yearn of the flesh. It's the yearn of the flesh. It's doing what the flesh wants to do and what the world is doing constantly. And that's the battle that we find ourselves in. From that very famous musical Jekyll and Hyde, you might remember that line,

Do I just sit and yearn or try to live and learn? Beautiful lines there. I also think about that Seinfeld skit. maybe you remember that one where out of nowhere, Kramer says to George, do you ever yearn? George responds, yearn? Do I, do I yearn? Kramer says, I yearn. George says, you yearn? George says, oh, yes, yes, I yearn. Often I sit and yearn. Have you yearned? George says, well, not recently. I've craved constant craving, but I haven't yearned. we all have yearned for the flesh, and we have all yearned for the spirit.

And you know what's interesting is that every single one of us, we use the time of our day to say yes to one of those yearnings, to one of those yearnings. And I was looking up the other day about different periods of time, and I realized that we have 86,400 seconds in a day. That's a lot. You know, people say, I don't have any time. Well, yes, you do you. In fact, you've got 86,400 seconds in a day, and you can use that towards going for the Lord

or living for that yearn of righteousness and holiness, as the Lord said, be holy as I'm holy. And if you want to think of it this way, those 86,400 seconds a day is like cash. It's very valuable. In fact, time is something that you can't create. You can create a mess. You can create opportunity. But you can never create time. Time is pure gift.

It's given to you and you can spend it. And there you are in between two yearns. And you can spend it because you have a will. Now, if we thought of time, 86,400 seconds a day, as dollars. I can tell you with great certainty right now, you would not spend or waste that time slash dollars the way we do currently with time. I don't think we would do it. I think we would put much more thought into burning dollars than we currently do burning time. We seem to have the idea that time is something that is expendable. It can be wasted. We can just

wait and you know fritter it away but in the end on our on our last day of life we're going to look back if we have that you know that ability to look back on that last day and we're going to say wow I wish I had 86,400 seconds one more time because there's so much that I could do with it not only in pursuing the spirit rather than the flesh but I could also spend that in relation to with the Lord, yes, but with other people as well, our loved ones. And this time that we have here on earth can be spent in such a way that it results in eternal life. That is amazing, but we're caught between two yearns and we have to make the right decision. Instead of just wasting time, we could spend our time educating ourselves. We could spend our time educating ourselves. We could

spend our time worshipping the Lord. We could spend our time loving other people rather than just entertaining ourselves. And I'm afraid that our culture is moving more and more towards self-amusement and entertainment, and we are slowly losing the capacity to really do some deep work and spend our time with the Lord, with relationships, you know, with our loved ones and our family and our friends, and it's because we're caught between two yearns. I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I want to give you a couple of tips here on how you can make the right decision when you find yourself caught between two yearns.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Nestled under the warm Florida sun is a university whose name indicates a vocational call. Ave Maria, Latin for Hail Mary, recalls the answer. Angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary of her future vocation, becoming the mother of God. Enriched by God's grace, Mary freely ascends to this call. This is the model for all students. Come to Ave Maria University, where we offer a liberal arts curriculum buoyed by the sacraments. This empowers you to clearly see your vocational call, whatever that might be.

Ave Maria University, your vocation location. Visit Ave Maria.edu or call 1-833am-am-U. uswfl. Yes, we are caught between two yearns, and we want to make the right decision, and we want to sow to righteousness rather than to unrighteousness. We want to sow to the kingdom of light rather than the kingdom of darkness. We want to serve the Lord rather than the enemy, and we want to serve eternal things. we want to we want to sew our time into eternal things rather than the temporal fleshly things now there's a

couple things that we can do that will help us along this way there's two scriptures that i want to share with you one well they're both from paul but but one of them is Ephesians 516 and paul gives some tremendous advice here and he says make the best use of the time because the days are are evil. And then he goes on and says, know the will of God. This is Ephesians chapter 5, verses 16, 17. He says, make the best use of your time. Or one translation says, make the most of every opportunity. He goes on to say, know the will of God. And then he also says in Colossians chapter 4 in verse 5, he says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best. use of the time. And so one of the keys that Paul gives us, when we find ourselves stuck,

you know, between two yearns, is know the will of God and give yourself over to that. Make the decision with your will that between these two yearns, you're going to give yourself to the will of God. Rather than saying, you know, just simply, I don't know what to do in my situation, find the will of God. Go for it. Move towards His will. Engage your will and say, I am going to do what the Lord desires in this situation. Whether it is your marriage or whether it is your time or whether it is your resources, your passion, whatever it might be, choose the will of God. Now, there's another thing that you can do to help you decide when you are caught between two yearns, and it is that classic question that we have heard for years and

years, yet we often forget on a daily basis, and that is that simple phrase, what would Jesus do? If Jesus were caught between two yearns, what do you think he would do? Well, he has always, everywhere in scripture, his will has always, always coincided with the Father's will. They're one. And that's what we want to do is we want to do what Jesus would do in any situation. Father, I choose to do your will. Not my will, but your will be done. And so if you find yourself at the crossroads between two yearns, you know what that feels like. know the choices that are before you. Just pause. Take a deep breath and ask yourself, what would Jesus do in this situation? What's his mindset? What is his yoke? What's his worldview? And then

do what Paul said. Make the most of every opportunity. All 86,400 seconds a day. Make the most of every opportunity, know the will of God, which is the example of Jesus, and walk in that direction. Now, there's something really, really important about this, and that is that once we determine the will of God in our lives and we're caught between two yearns, we have to actually do something about it. It's not enough to just meditate on this and say, well, this is probably what the Lord would do, you know, in this situation. You actually have to get up and do it. You have to get up and do it. Put the iPhone down. Put your iPads away. Turn the computer off. Turn Netflix off. Everything, everything that is just contributing to the yearn in your life for likes and

entertainment and everything else. Turn it off and pursue the Lord. Now, this sounds like such a simple thing to do, but wow, I have talked to more people lately who are caught between two yearns and they don't do anything about it. And their life is spiraling, spiraling out of control. And one day goes by and one week goes by and a month goes by. And before you know it, there is this emptiness that develops when we're caught between two yearns because to not go after one or the other put you in the middle. And there is this vast wasteland of just seeking.

but we're not landing anywhere. Oh, to, you know, to walk with the Lord when you're caught between two yearns and to cling to the Lord, cling to the cross, do what is right, walk according to your vocation. If you're a father, a husband, whatever you find, a priest, a deacon, a religious, a generous single person, when you pursue the Lord in between the two yearns, the result of that is a deep, deep joy that you have done, but the Lord requires of you. And on the other side of being caught between two yearns, what we truly want to hear in our life is, well done, good and faithful servant.

Well done, good and faithful servant. Now, as I conclude today, I just want to remind you that this last year during COVID has been one great big period where we found ourselves stuck between two yearns. And from what I hear, you know, as far as the statistics out in the world go, many people just sat and pursued the flesh, whether it was eating or whether it was entertainment or getting into trouble on the internet. Today is the day to turn that around. Today is the day to repent. And repentance is a radical reorientation of our life to Christ. Today is the day to repent. Turn to the Lord with all your heart and feed that yearn of holiness. And to be like God. You see, what you feed between two

yearns will determine your destiny. If you feed the flesh, you know what the end is. It is death. if you feed the spirit we know what the end of that is and that's eternal life my friend feed your spirit read the word of god meditate go to a holy hour receive the eucharist go to confession have time to meditate on the condition of your heart do lexio divino with scripture feed your spirit. If your life is between the two yearns, the yearn that's going to win is the one you're going to give your time to and your heart too. Well, I just felt like I needed to share this today, and I would love to hear from you if you can email me. My email address is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And you can leave comments on this show. Do me a favor. Go to Apple,

rank the show. Why do I say that? Because, Because when you participate in the show this way, the algorithms rise in a favorable way. And when people are searching, who knows, someone might be searching today between two yearns. This is what's going to come up. And we're able to give them some godly advice, point them in the direction that points to life. So I appreciate you doing that, going to Apple, rank the show, make some comments. And that would be very much appreciated. Let's close, shall we, in prayer, and ask the Lord to give us the strength and the wisdom and the courage to make this decision.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, we thank you today for giving us life and life more abundantly. As we find ourselves, O God, caught between two yearns, give us courage, Lord, give us wisdom we beg, give us the power to make the decisions to feed the spirit in our lives. we repent of what we have done in the past. And now we set our heart and our eyes upon you to radically reorient our life to you. Lord, may we reach out and touch you and taste and see that you are good. We thank you, Lord, for waking us up today. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. And my friend, I look forward to seeing you next week.

And remember, Bible in a year, Bible in a year with Father Mike Schmitz and myself, join the crowd as we read scripture throughout the year. I love you. Have a great day.