Restful Journey

But what we lose our temper or our “control” to, what begins to govern our actions at that point, is precisely our body and the inclinations to wrong that, as Paul and James both knew, actually inhabit its parts as living forces. You can verify this by carefully observing the bodily behavior of the next person you see in a rage. For usual human beings in the usual circumstances, their body runs their life. Contrary to the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25, life is, for them, not more than food, nor the body more than clothing. As a matter of simple fact, their time and energy is almost wholly, if not entirely, devoted to how their body looks, smells, and feels, and to how it can be secured and used to meet ego needs such as admiration, sexual gratification, and power over others. THE BODY BETRAYED NOW  THE HUMAN BODY is betrayed in its own nature when it is thus made central to human life. It is created for spiritual life in the kingdom of God and to be honored—indeed, glorified—in th...

We can now liberate the energy in atoms by “splitting” them. (I am told there is enough energy in a raisin to supply power to New York City for an entire day.) And as such “members” he lists “fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which” he says, “is idolatry.” What does this mean, “members which are upon the earth”? It means those parts of a life lived entirely in terms of the natural powers of the embodied self. You need no help from supernatural sources to engage in fornication, the many sexual pollutions—“short of intercourse,” we now say—indulgences in passions and desires for what is evil, or greed to possess what belongs to others. Just follow the inclinations now built into your bodily existence and they will all happen. Just let the demands of your “members” guide your life. These are the “parts” of our life that are “upon the earth,” in the sense that they do not come “from heaven” or God. Because of them, human beings become “children of disobed...

Who does not know, for example, that it is God’s will we should be without guile and malice? Then let us decide never to mislead people and never to do or say things merely to cause pain or harm. Let us decide that today, right now, we will not do such things. For example, our “righteous judgments” on others may, as we practice solitude or service, be recognized as ways of putting them down and us up. Yellow highlight | Page: 156 To have no will is impossible. It would be to not even be a person. Rather, it is for the first time to have a will that is fully functional, not at war with itself, and capable of directing all of the parts of the self in harmony with one another under the direction of God. The will of God is not foreign to our will. It is sweetness, life, and strength to us. Our heart sings, Sweet will of God, Oh, hold me closer, ‘Til I am wholly lost in Thee.  pp. 155-156 SOURCE  

The center of the self, the heart or spirit, is now willing for God to be God—even if with little hope or enthusiasm. Perhaps it is only willing to be made willing. But it is for lack of this minimal identification with God’s will that multitudes of people are unable to understand the truth of Jesus (John 7:17). Such persons are not willing to do his will, and hence God does not open their understanding, and they cannot do so. They are left to struggle in the darkness, which in fact they desire. And they will certainly reproach God for not giving them more light, though they are unwilling to act on the light they have. Accordingly, older Christian writers often speak of how we are privileged to “kiss the rod” of affliction which strikes us, even while trembling with weakness and pain. What a crucial lesson this is for spiritual transformation! We cease to live on edge, wondering, “Will God do what I want?” Pain will not turn to bitterness or disappointment to paralysis. Such a one ...

NO GREAT SOPHISTICATION or information about God is required to be reached by God. Edith Schaeffer tells of a man from the Lisu tribe far out in the hills back of China. There was in him a great longing for a God he did not know. One day he found on a mountain path a page torn from a Lisu catechism. He read: “Are there more gods than One?”—“No, there is only One God.” “Should we worship idols?”—“No . . .” And the rest was torn away. He went home and destroyed his altars. Immediately his daughter became very ill and his neighbors taunted him for making the demons angry. The man thought if there was one true God perhaps he could reach that God with his voice. He knew nothing about prayer, but he climbed to the top of the highest peak in the vicinity—twelve or fourteen thousand feet high—and shouted out, “Oh, God, if You really are there and You are the One I am to worship, please make my little girl well again.” It took a long time to climb back down, but upon arriving home he found the ...

Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it. WILLIAM LAW Moreover, what we think is very much a matter of what we wish and seek to think, and what we feel is very much a matter of what we wish and seek to feel. In short, the condition of our mind is very much a matter of the direction in which our will is set. It is character that explains why we use credit reports and resumes and letters of reference to make decisions about people. They do not just tell what someone did, but they reveal what kind of thoughts, feelings, and tendencies of will that person habitually acts from, and therefore how he or she will act in the future. But character can be changed. And...

Following our VIM pattern (we transform by fostering V ision, I ntentions and M eans) we must intend this and decide that it shall be in all we are and do. [Means: find resources and write down steps to fulfillment] We may need to write out what those feelings are in a “letter to the Lord,” or perhaps confer about them with a wise Christian friend who knows how to listen to us and to God at the same time. Journaling about progress with feelings can also help. It can bring to light the ideas and images or past events on which the destructive feelings are based. Those, too, will need to be replaced or revised. Many such details may play a role as we progress toward predominance of love, joy, and peace in that dimension of our mind and our self that is our feelings. We have noted how we go wrong in trying to manipulate feelings themselves without regard to their underlying condition. Feelings have a crucial role in life, but they must not be taken as a basis for action or character change...