Spiritual maintenance is a practice of honest examination of ourselves, regular confession and repentance, active participation in fast (for the practice of not falling victim to desire worship - following ever passion like a trained dog), and active participation in the holy liturgy. Though this last one has not been discussed much, it is an essential ingredient in your warfare. Look at it this way, you are training for war, to do battle. Periodically you get together with other warriors. You swap stories. Spar a bit with each other. Share tips. And even inspire a fellow soldier who may have lost a battle. All of this happens in a liturgy. There you meet like-minded people who seek guidance, comfort and strength. You get inspired by the words of God, the stories of Saints who have fought the good fight before you. But best of all, you ingest the holy body and blood of Christ. You partake of his divinity and as such tap in to His strength and His mighty endurance. The divine liturgy is opportunity to meet with others, to share training tips and to be inspired. Do not rob yourself of this beauty.

Being Christian is not easy. It is a cross you must carry. For those who seek leisure in this life, will suffer in the afterlife. Those who struggle now, will gain rest eternally in the afterlife. But the magnitude of going from a non-Christian based life to a Christ-focused life is a bit overwhelming. Which is why we must examine each and every aspect of this spiritual warfare you are undertaking.

Another example to compare with. A Coptic Orthodox liturgy can be as long as 4-5 hours. When I first started to attend (for I was not born an Orthodox), I really felt it was too long. But the truth is, I was overwhelmed with the whole magnitude of the liturgical service. The praise, the hymns, the responses, the languages (English, Coptic, and Arabic), the meanings and purpose of each aspect of the service. But I stuck with it. I started to ask questions as to why (on almost everything) I would get frustrated at times when the priest would speak in Arabic or Coptic. But still I stuck with it. Now, I marvel at how fast the time goes by. And I love every nuance of the service. And no it does not start Sunday morning - it actually starts the night before. For there is a whole process to preparing the altar to receive the body of Christ.

But I catch myself. For I know what I describe is on the other side of the mountain we must climb together. And in truth, spiritual maintenance is equal for the new-comer as it is for the stolid believer. Because without proper spiritual maintenance - even an angel will fall, as was the case with Satan.

Negligence is like, "The worm which gnaws at the roots of the tree." At first, the effects are unknown and unseen. And if the roots are not inspected the damage will continue. Then the fruit starts to shrivel up, the leaves start to fall off - yet we do not know why. The tree bark is healthy. The tree looks okay and yet it is dying. This is the cause of spiritual negligence. To prevent this we must apply spiritual maintenance.

At the end of the day, examine your day. Be honest with yourself. If you sinned, admit it to yourself. Do not justify the acts that are clearly wrong, But admit the sin and take measures to correct the thinking that led up to it. When you are angry, examine the root or cause of the anger. At first you may say that so an so made me angry (of course the comment is stupid - for no one can make you angry unless you let them). So then what about so an so made you angry. What was their action that caused this reaction. If you do this repeatedly, you will begin to see that many of these outbursts of emotions (either pleasureable or not) are the result of some illness in us. Something unconfessed, unrelenting, and unforgiven within us. You will quickly discover that you will be weighted done by unrepented sin. It builds up within us and makes even the simple task difficult.

For example, forgiveness. It is a simple matter to forgive somebody and move on. We feel lighter and freer. But something about what they did prevents you from forgiving them. And so you cling to the judgment. You justify your retention of this pride-based slight against you. And you become weighted down. You will never be able to climb out of the mud that is this life, to ascend to divinity if you use one of your hands to hold on to the dirt. Let it go and with both hands firmly grip the ladder and climb. Fight for your right to be one with Him.

So to recap; spiritual maintenance is a perpetual honest self-examination of our daily sins (and they do occur daily with us all). And then seek out the root cause of the sin and pluck that worm from gnawing at your spiritual roots that are tender and sweet.