More - Not hungry for God

October 18, 2011

Of all the stuff I have tried over the last ten years, I think this experiment has received the most passionate of responses.  

For those just dropping in, I am in a season of not hungering and thirsting for the Lord.  I am not going after God.  BUT, what I am doing is seeking to be fully obedient to Him moment by moment.  My mindset is like Israel being led by God out of Egypt and into the promise land.  I see myself as needing more to obey than to set the course.

How can you not hunger for God and expect to grow, or even be a Christian?  My response is “I know God has promised to reward those who seek after Him, I also know all who seek Him find Him. But is there another way?”  And answer to “is there another way” is –yes.  

In history some who were called saints, some who performed miracles, and some who lived extremely holy lives did what I am doing now. (I said it that way to bias my argument.  How sad that I felt like I could not convince simply by saying “Godly people”).   I didn’t just come up with this idea, I took it from them.  Jesus Himself also did what I am seeking to do.  Jesus did what He saw the Father doing.  Jesus also taught us that His sheep know His voice.  Combining all these I feel like this season of discipline is about overcoming my American spirit of elitism and humanism by practicing the humility of obedience.  What leader wants to be told what to do?  What missional purposeful ministry wants to put their agenda on hold and wait on the Lord?  I am not saying they should.   I am saying I am giving myself to discover if there is another way.

We appeal to the fact that Christ went about doing good, and we hold that the true imitation of Him consists in doing as He did rather than in being as He was. The hermits thought differently. Philanthropy was, in their view, an incidental result, as it were, a by-product of the religious spirit. Here, no doubt, there is a great gulf fixed between us and them. There is a difference of ideal. It is possible to aim at doing good, and snatch now and then, as opportunity offers, a space for the culture and of spirituality, for the "making" of the soul. It is possible also to shape life for the attainment of perfection, welcoming, as it may happen to offer itself, the chance of usefulness. The latter was the ideal of the hermits. Is the former ours? Surely the purest altruism will decline to accept it. We recognise, when we are at our best, that what we ought to aim at is that good should get done, and not that we ourselves should do it.

Hannay, James O. (2010-07-05). The Wisdom of The Desert (pp. 17-18). Unknown. Kindle Edition.

I am overwhelmed at times with the calls to do all the good we can.  One troubling of my soul is all the pushing aside of others so that we might be the one who wins the prize.  I must be the healer; I must be the prophet, the apostle or even the servant.  We share the works of God very little.  Being driven, not abiding in Christ and bearing much fruit, is the new call to order.  We once thought that apart from Him we could do nothing, but now we do a great many things.  Our independence is more productive than the old school of trust and obey.  

Teresa of Ávila shares a list of items that assist a person in union with God – transformation.  One of the items on her list is to not seek the right form but simply obey God, moment by moment.  She coaches us away from trying to do things right in order to get God to bless us and encourages us to humbly submit to the Lord.  I think I will keep trying this for a little while longer.