Thoughts from Thomas a Kempis

I’m enjoying The Imitation of Christ. Chapter 58 of the Third Book has some material that grabbed my attention.

I foreknew my beloved ones before the beginning of the world. I chose them out of the world, they chose not me first. I called them by grace. I attracted them by mercy. I led them safe through sundry temptations. I have poured into them glorious consolations, I have given them perseverance, I have crowned their patience.

It’s nice to know we’re not accidents looking for a place to happen.

Our Source of Approval

Continuing with Thomas a Kempis from yesterday:

The minds of men are often deceived in their judgments; the lovers of the world too are deceived in loving only things visible.

How is a man ever better, for being esteemed great by man?

I am challenged by this question – how is a man ever better, for being esteemed great by man? The praise of others does not make our character better, nor our intrinsic worth, yet how many of us crave the esteem of others? I have known times of disgusting vanity, times of wanting to be recognized, to be acknowledged. I have often said that were it not for my business vocation that I wouldn’t have sensed the depths of my vanity; but that is also true of vocational ministry – the beast is always lurking in the basement or the attic.

The deceitful in flattering the deceitful, the vain man in extolling the vain, the blind in commending the blind, the weak in magnifying the weak, deceives him; and verily doth more shame him, while he doth vainly praise him.

Isn’t this the dance of a world focused on temporal things, whether they are material things or pleasures or images or positions or the esteem of others? This is not to say that we don’t praise others and recognize others; it is to say that we don’t seek the praise of others and that our egos don’t feed off recognition.

“For what every one is in thy sight, that is he, and no more,” saith humble St. Francis.

I really love this quote. At the end of the day, or better yet, at the end of life, it doesn’t matter what others think [in context], what matters is what God thinks.

It’s hard to live like that. At least it is hard for me to live like that. I want the esteem of others and it’s easy to forget that it is what God thinks that is important.

One of the critical ways that I find balance in all this is by renewing my mind in God’s Word. Francis Schaeffer wrote that one of the reasons he read the Bible was to cleanse his mind; I find that refreshing and encouraging. We live in a world of dust and we need to wash our hearts and minds or the dust will become caked within us and the eyes of our hearts will be blinded.

Oh Lord, may I remember that what I am in thy sight, that I am, and no more.

The Lesser or the Greater?

As I’ve previously mentioned I’ve been incorporating The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis in my morning devotions this year along with a collection of Puritan prayers. The two go hand-in-hand, which is interesting on a number of fronts, not the least of which is the historical front. Here is some interaction with yesterday’s reading from The Imitation of Christ:

Grant me, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that which is worth loving, to praise that which pleaseth thee most, to esteem that which is precious unto thee, to despise that which in thy sight is contemptible.

The author of Hebrews exhorts us to “…lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…,” Hebrews 12:1b-2a.

Not to minimize sin (I have a forthcoming post about sin as a matter of fact), but I think that more often than not our enemy is not so much sin but encumbrance – things that don’t matter from an eternal perspective. Runners in a race, or swimmers in a race, pay close attention to what they wear – what they wear is directly related to the race and nothing unrelated to the race is worn by the runner or swimmer. Anything extraneous to the race would be detrimental to the competitor, would impede the competitor’s progress, would create resistance, and would weight the competitor down.

Suffer me not to judge according to the sight of the outward eyes, nor to give sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men; but with a true judgment to discern between things visible and spiritual, and above all to be ever searching after the good pleasure of thy will.

What appears good and righteous to the natural eye, to the visible world, may be an encumbrance; it may be a substitute for things eternal, it may be an exit ramp off the race course. The fact is that all of us are ignorant men to one degree or another, which is why Solomon teaches us to not lean on our own understanding but to look to God. Our vulnerability is not so much when we don’t understand, then we tend to look to God; it is rather when we understand, because then we assume we know what we are doing and we assume our judgments are correct. And we are the most certain of our own judgments when we deal with what we think is good and evil, or right and wrong, or righteous and unrighteous apart from the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. There is no righteousness outside of Jesus Christ, and there is no glory outside of Jesus Christ – when we cloth ourselves with anything other than Jesus we encumber ourselves in the race of life in Christ.

We forget that the tree which our ancestors Adam and Eve ate from was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the knowledge of “good” is just as dangerous, if not more so, in the life of the Christian than the knowledge of evil – for it can deceive us into thinking we understand and experience good apart from Christ. To be sure we are called to maturation in Christ so that we can discern good and evil (Hebrews 5:14), but the context is Christ, the context is always Christ.

Am I running the race with excess baggage? Am I weighing myself down with things that are good but are not eternal? What about you?