Posted by quequel on February 21, 2003 at 00:57:04:
Okay, it is WAAAAY past my bedtime, but I can work in a few hours and sleep in on Saturday, right? I went outside to read a couple of posts that I had passed over and printed off, and now I can't go to bed! I've been reading The Practice of the Presence of God, with Brother Lawrence, and there were some things I had marked to post about, then I read Bill's post regarding the 2/9 sermon notes. Sounds like I'm not the only one thinking about this.
A couple of things I wanted to share from Brother Lawrence:
"He told me...
That all things are possible to him who believes; that they are less difficult to him who hopes; that they are more easy to him who loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.
That when we enter upon the spiritual life, we should consider and examine to the bottom what we are. And then we should find ourselves worthy of all contempt, and not deserving indeed of the name of Christians...to whom God would humble by many pains and labors...After this we should not wonder that troubles, temptations, oppositions, and contradictions happen to us from men."
Brother Lawrence expected to be suffer and sacrifice, considering what he deserved, and was continuously surprised that God had given him such pleasure in life. His pleasure? Doing dishes--which he never had enjoyed before--purchasing wine for the monastery, even though he was crippled and had to roll himself over the barrels to get around the ship--all kinds of things he never expected to enjoy or be good at, but that made for the happiest life, because no matter what he was doing, he was communing with God.
Seems too good to be true? Seems a little out of touch with the world today? Seems like it would be a lot easier living in a monastery.
But I remember once upon a time throwing away all my secular music, not because I believed it was evil, but because I didn't want anything to distract me from continual communion. I've been a lot of places since then, and discovered The Dave Matthews Band, to which most Christian musicians can't compare, but still...I'm starting to wonder if I was really naive, or if I've just grown cynical.
Brother Lawrence says that for the first TEN YEARS of trying to aim all his thoughts on God, he struggled. I try for a week and go for months without even trying. He set small time frames for himself at first...I can do that. Like the "trigger" method Bill talked about, where we pick a day and a trigger. Any time during that day that the "trigger" occurs--the phone ringing, getting a drink, or when certain thoughts come (see 2 Cor 10:5)--we redirect our thoughts to Christ, letting them linger there, asking ourselves questions about the previous hours, or asking Christ to show us something about what we've experienced.
Thankfully, since my "naive" days, I have learned that this won't make me "SuperKristi" or remove all doubt and temptation (thanks, Steve!), but maybe I can regress to the me before my cynicism called those old days "naive." The me that wanted nothing at all in this world than more Christ, more hunger, more Christ, more hunger, more Christ....