"This is how your freedom is taken. Things get to terrible places one tiny step at a time. If I encroach you and I'm sophisticated about it, I'm going to encroach two millimetres. I'm going to encroach right to the point where you begin to protest. Then I'm going to stop.
Then I'm going to wait. I'm going to encroach again, right to the point where you protest. I'm going to stop. And then I'm going to wait. I'm just going to do that forever. Before you know it, you're going to be back three miles from where you started.
And you'll have done it one step at a time. You'll ask "Oh, how did I get here?". The answer is "Well, I pushed you a little farther than you should have gone, and you agreed."
I believe this encroachment comes from the Enemy within. This encroachment strategy is in fact a twisting of the virtuous path to conquering evil and overcoming sin. That is how insidious the erosion of freedom is for each of us. Not just freedom outside us, but most importantly that authentic freedom within us that enables us to be our true selves, the person God calls each of us to be.
The mystic Henry Suso, in his The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, wrote that a timid knight is necessary to conquer the Enemy. Suso said,
"[T]he mountain is high and the way slippery; it cannot be climbed with one joust but with repeated attacks.
Here we need a timid knight who, because of the superior power of the enemy, first draws back and only gains ground gradually. This is the sort of battle good men carry on during their entire lifetime."
The battle within has taken a turn for the worse, twisted to the point that the gradual gains have become gradual encroachments. To change we must first recognize the direction we are heading is south because if we do not know for sure, we assume we always head north correctly. We must reorient ourselves with a compass. Until that happens, we will assume falsely that we are directing ourselves correctly. This compass must rely on the field that surrounds us, not of our own making but a field beyond our own doing. This compass I speak of is the moral compass that detects the field of God's plan.
With God's compass in hand, I must become that timid knight, timid or patient in step yet bold in conviction. My conviction comes from trusting in God's compass, knowing in my heart that I need and desire to head north. So my first step is turning away from the south and face north. Then I abide in that moment, facing north. Keeping my eyes fixed on my compass pointing north, I take just one small step forward, nothing more. I must train myself slowly to step north. If I move too fast I will become disoriented because the Enemy is always behind me, trying to confuse my mind and deceive my eyes. I must keep my mind clear of the distracting temptations behind me and trust in that inner calling that comes from beyond me, in front of me, a beacon from the north.
The gradual battle within is fought by keeping north, one patient step at a time. For by each, slow, and focused step, I am growing stronger in patience. So the next patient step is made with even greater conviction. And that conviction within me strengthens my outer self, my armor that I put on me to in some ways automatically deflect the now soft blows of the Enemy who keeps behind me.
With each advancing, patient step I take to the north, I defeat the gradual battles within because I gradually become more aware of who I am, who I am called to be. I am not my own because I am not alone. I walk in this battle within with God always in front of me.
