Of Bearing with the Defects of Others

I titled the post the same as Book 1, Chapter 16 of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis because nothing else seemed quite as relevant.  When I read this passage I was struck deeply by what he says about bearing with each other, and especially by this nugget of wisdom:

If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldest, how wilt thou be able to have another in all things to thy liking?

This is so amazingly correct!  I'm going to add this to, "What do you have that you did not receive?" as one of my repeat-this-often-to-yourself phrases.

There is a Way that Seems Right...

I continue to be amazed by The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. In the passage I read last night (Book 1, Chapter 14) I came across the following:

We often judge of a thing according as we fancy it; for through private affection we easily lose true judgment.

This is one of the most common problems we have today and yet we don't often acknowledge that the problem exists. At the level of the individual that makes some sense because as individuals we don't usually know that we are doing this. A little later in the same passage à Kempis essentially says as much:

Many secretly seek themselves in what they do, and know it not.

So as he says, we often do this and we don't actually know that we are doing it. Unfortunately this isn't something you hear much today in our essentially hedonistic society. Hedonism in our society masquerades as affirmation of the self so we allow it without thinking. There are very few checks on the self that are levied by our culture and this is done purposefully because modern psychology has convinced itself that self-affirmation is central to personal well-being, but these words really mean that the seeking of pleasure is central to happiness. Of course, the notion that the seeking of pleasure is central to happiness is not new, it dates back at least to the 4th century B.C. What is more insidious about what we have done today, however, lies in our inability to acknowledge that what we are doing is elevating the seeking of our pleasure above all else. We invent fancy words for it in an effort to fool ourselves into not understanding what it is that we are really doing. This blinds us to the existence within ourselves of what à Kempis is talking about in the previous quotes which is our uncanny ability to fool ourselves into actually believing that the seeking of our own ends is really what God wants us to do. People will not believe this of themselves if they are doing it. It is very difficult to see until you are out of it on the other side. Many things in life are this way and we are warned against this effect in Proverbs:

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Our duty, then, is to examine our life as it stands now and compare it to what we find in the Bible and when something does not match up not to convince ourselves that somehow we are in the right. This comes down to allowing the Bible to convict us. We do not like to be convicted and we naturally resist this, but the Bible seeks to convict us constantly as we measure up to its perfection.  Submission is the key that opens this lock for us, and not self-promotion.  In this way we are swimming upstream but we will be happier if we do:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Imitation of Christ

I really love bookstores, and the bigger the better. I can get lost for hours in all of the possibilities among the stacks of books. It gets even better when it is somewhere like Barnes and Noble and they have those bargain books up front but it makes it really difficult not to spend a lot of money. A few days ago when I was at a Barnes and Noble I saw a new bargain book that Barnes and Noble had published called Wellsprings of Faith that contained three books: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, and The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. Since it was only $20 (and quite thick- therefore full of promise), I bought it.

I started in at the beginning of the first book - The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis the night after buying the book and it is slow going. Part of this is the age of the translation (around 1900) which imbues the text with somewhat archaic wording but a bigger part of it is the density of each section. The Imitation of Christ is split up into small chunks that supposedly would form part of morning or evening devotional readings for the members of The Brethren of the Common Life, which à Kempis was a part of in the fifteenth century.  Even after the first few sections the quotable quotes are numerous:

I had rather feel contrition, than know the definition thereof.

Who hath a harder struggle than he that laboureth to conquer himself?

But because many endeavour rather to know than to live well; therefore they are often deceived, and reap either none, or scanty fruit.

O, if men bestowed as much labour in the rooting out of vices, and planting of virtues, as they do in moving of questions, there would neither be so great evils and scandals in the world, nor so much looseness in religious houses.

Truly, when the day of judgment cometh, we shall not be examined what we have read, but what we have done.

Tell me, where are now all those Masters and Doctors, with whom thou wast well acquainted whilst they lived and flourished in learning?  Now others possess their livings, and perhaps do scarce ever think of them.  In their lifetime they seemed to be somewhat, but now they are not spoken of... O that their life had been answerable to their learning!

We ought not to believe every saying or suggestion, but ought warily and patiently to ponder the matter with reference to God.  But alas! such is our weakness, that we often rather believe and speak evil of others than good.

Enquire willingly, and hear with silence the words of holy men: let not the proverbs of the elders displease thee, for they are not recounted without cause.

Extol not thyself for the height of thy stature, or beauty of thy person, which is disfigured and destroyed by a little sickness.

Continual peace is with the humble; but in the heart of the proud is envy and frequent indignation.

We think sometimes to please others by our company, and we begin rather to displease them with the wickedness which they discover in us.

And that is just a sampling which I cut short because I got tired of holding the book open and typing at the same time.  Almost every line is thought-provoking so I find myself going slowly and reading lines over again and then sometimes stopping and thinking for awhile about whether I agree with him from a Biblical perspective (there are lots of scripture references and I don't always find I agree with the way he used them) and sometimes stopping and thinking about how right I think he is on other counts.  The book is very humbling (you can see that in some of what I've quoted above), which is good.  I find humility gives my heart peace.  When I'm not trying to compete with everyone around me I feel better about everything I do.  I don't find that I feel what I do is more worthy, but rather I care less about what others might think of what I do and more about what effect it might have for God in the world as he uses it.  A friend I met on MySpace recently sent me a message that sums this up:

I don't think it's so much a matter of how we as individuals write, but what we write about that reaches the audience's heart.

I'll go even further than this and say that I think it comes down to understanding that it isn't me that has any effect at all but only God - this notion gives me peace and it doesn't have the effect that we sometimes think it might have - that of making us lazy.  In fact if anything it has had the opposite effect on me because as I worry less about what others think of me and allow God to "give the increase" instead of trying to make the increase myself (a wasted effort, of course) I find myself actually doing more in the end than I ever did before.  Though here I find I finally understand Galatians 2:20 and the meaning of Paul saying that he no longer lived but that Christ lived through him - I understand that it is not me doing these things and that makes them even easier to do.

Truly His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

The Hollywood Proof of Christianity

This is somewhat repetitive of a previous post but the obvious aspects of the events in recent weeks makes it worth repeating.

I had a roommate in college who was a very liberal rationalist and loved to talk about it.  He would often confront us more conservative types with something he thought was difficult for us to answer.  On one particular occasion he confronted me with the "old-fashioned" view in the Bible that you can be (in fact, must be) happy with one person for the rest of your life.  In response, I asked him about the people who had been married for 50 or 60 years and his answer was that they had obviously cheated on each other and were just okay with that or they hadn't told the other one that they were cheating.  I asked him how long he thought people could stay happy with one person and his answer was, "Three to four years, tops."  (Notably he thought women may be able to go a little longer, as I recall.)

Now, I have been married for 12 years and I am pretty sure my wife has been faithful to me, but my old roommate would just laugh and say that she is lying so I'll use the proof I am sure of which is myself.  I say this in front of God and everyone else and I would challenge anyone to find a skeleton in my closet that disproves it because I know that they do not exist.  So I say that I have not held or kissed, much less had sex with, another woman (or man, to those thinking of Ted Haggard and trying to find holes in my logic) other than my wife for all of these years.  I have not flirted with any person (in real life or on the net or on the phone or by any other communication mechanism that exists) other than my wife and I have not ever discussed flirting with any person other than my wife.  I go on a lot of business trips and in all of them I spend my nights in a hotel alone and it has never been any different in all the years I have traveled places without my wife.

I titled this post The Hollywood Proof of Christianity because our culture believes what my roommate believed, and our culture believes it to be self-evident.  That is, our culture believes it to be self-evident and an absolute truth that beautiful people should have sex with each other and that they should have a lot of money and that this will make them happy.  No other source passes this message along in so pure a form as Hollywood does.  And yet in this past week we have had two proofs straight out of Hollywood itself that this does not bring happiness.  You can say many things about Anna Nicole Smith (and all of them have been said this past week) but you cannot say that she was happy.  You can say many of the same things about Britney Spears, but with her recent head-shaving and tattooing escapade nobody who had to deal with her (at the tattoo parlor they said she was a "nightmare") would say she was happy.  But these are "beautiful" women (I use the Hollywood definition here - in all honesty Anna Nicole Smith did nothing for me and lest anyone think I am not being honest I'll point out that I think Britney is an attractive woman) and they live(d) Hollywood lives.  They had lots of money and went to all the right parties with all the right people.  It is abundantly clear that Anna Nicole Smith had lots of sex with lots of different people but she was quoted by those who were close to her as saying that she felt unloved.  How is such a thing possible?  Both women are following all of the rules as laid down by Hollywood and pop culture in general and yet they are so remarkably unhappy.  Maybe, just maybe, it is time for us to apply a little rationalism of our own and suggest, ever so gently, that Hollywood itself has proven that having lots of money and lots of sex with lots of different people doesn't bring happiness (or love or even feelings of being loved).

I don't say this to give the reader too much information but rather to go along with what we are discussing here.  In the Bible we read:

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.  (Proverbs 5:15-19)

I have to say that I have found this to be absolutely true.  Even as I get older and as our marriage goes on to 3 times the length that my roommate ever thought I could get to without cheating I have found that all aspects of my marriage continue to get better.  This is why I called this post the Hollywood Proof of Christianity, because you will not find the notion that one woman can sexually satisfy a man for 12 years (and more) outside of the Bible.  You will in fact find that people scoff and mock at such a suggestion but in fact the Bible anticipates this, too and the continuation of the passage above is as pure a truth and as good advice today as you will ever find:

Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.  (Proverbs 5:20-23)

Remember the sadness and pain in Hollywood as it lives the wisdom of those who think that Bible is full of nonsense and realize that they are in fact living out the words in Proverbs: "The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.  He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray."

The Way of Salvation

I'm halfway through The Way of Salvation by K.C. Moser and I have to say that I'm enjoying the book. I'm not sure I agree with everything he says (his concept of faith as expressing itself in obedience only when a command is associated with it is difficult to establish scripturally, I think), but overall the book is an interesting approach to unifying the concepts in scripture that are connected with salvation (faith, repentance, confession, baptism). Note that if you come from a strong Reformed point of view then you will react negatively to that last sentence, but I'm not passing along an opinion. Repentance, confession and baptism are connected in the Word with faith, and faith with salvation, whether or not you decide that you want to read those passages in the way they are written. If you don't then you still have to struggle with forcing them into a different mold:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15) No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3) And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38) Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19) But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:8-10) But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:25-27)

Now, returning to The Way of Salvation I have to caveat the rest of the post that since I'm only halfway through the book he might change directions on me, invalidating what I mention later, but at the moment this is the way that things stand. So far, the book is proposing that the concepts I mentioned before that are connected in scripture with salvation are merely different facets of faith. Faith in Christ is defined by Moser as being trust in the power of Christ's death, burial and resurrection to save us. Repentance, therefore, is a necessary aspect of faith since faith is turning in trust toward Christ and this implies the other side of the coin: turning away from the things of the flesh (which is what repentance is). Confession is "faith spoken." That is, confession is the vocal expression of the heart that trusts in Christ. I haven't gotten through the section on baptism but he is already heading in the same direction with it as well (showing that it is a natural facet of faith and not merely something tacked on as an afterthought). This seems to me to be an interesting systematizing of salvation in the Word - tying everything to aspects of faith. I don't think I've actually ever heard it stated this way so it is definitely giving me some food for thought. I'll post some more as I get further through the book.