Feast and famine

Jesus has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross.

He has many seekers of consolation, but few of tribulation.

He finds many companions at His feasting, but few at His fasting.

All desire to rejoice with Him; few are willing to endure anything for Him.

(The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis, book 2, chapter 11)

It is astounding to observe how much of our Christian spirituality is fundamentally selfish. Devotional publications are often glorified self-help books; preachers proclaim the happiness of the believer. Prayer often centers on the pleasure and spiritual satisfaction of the supplicant. Exhilaration, not humility, becomes the key characteristic of the modern Christian.

Selfishness is what got us into trouble in the first place.

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Colossians 2:17-19, ESV

| Posted by Wilson at 23:47 Central | TrackBack
| Report submitted to the Humanities Desk