Continuing from Jerry Sittser’s writings in his book “The Will of God as a Way of Life”. . .
Francis de Sales, known during his lifetime in the seventeenth century as a wise counselor and master of the spiritual life, believed that the effects of true devotion, which he defined as living one’s whole life for God, would naturally spill over into the rest of one’s life and erase any distinction between what is religious and what is secular. Such devotion would influence and transform every area of one’s life as varnish adds a beautiful sheen to everything it covers.
True devotion does even better. Not only does it not spoil any sort of life situation or occupation, but on the contrary enriches it and makes it attractive. Devotion makes the care of the family peaceful, the love of husband and wife more sincere, the service of the ruler more loyal, and every sort of occupation more pleasant and more loveable.20
There is a second reason for the ambiguity of Jesus’ words in seeking God’s will. They prevent us from putting off obedience to God until some later time. When Jesus taught “Seek first God’s kingdom” and “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day,” he was insisting that we treat the present moment as the proper time—the only time, really—to follow God. It is not enough to refrain from worrying about a future beyond our control; rather we should be fully present to what is immediately at hand, like a child playing her favorite game on a beautiful summer day. If we associate God’s will with some great work we hope to do in the future, it is so easy to overlook the little works we can and should be doing every day. It is far too convenient to use our future aspirations (e.g., What a wonderful contribution I will make as a surgeon.”) as an excuse for neglecting to serve God in the present.
College students are notorious for claiming the right to sow “wild oats” during their college years because they assume they will take a more serious turn later when, as adults, they enter the “real” world and begin careers, marry, and raise children. But such a decision to put off the will of God can form bad habits. We put it off until we get our first job. Then we decide to wait until we get married and have children. Then we excuse ourselves until we settle comfortably into middle age. In other words, we continue to postpone doing God’s will until there is no time left. It’s never now; it is always later.
But the time to do God’s will is now—always now and never later. As I tell my children, “You will never find it easy to love your siblings, at least not at first. It will only get easy with practice. So you might as well start now. ”
If anything, the sooner we get started, the better it will be—for us, not for God. God does not command us to do his will for his sake, as if he were some puny dictator needing to have his ego flattered by groveling subjects. God commands us to seek him because our deepest longing in life is for him. We are incomplete without him. If we put off doing his will we sacrifice our own happiness and fulfillment. We have been created for God, and nothing less than complete surrender is going to satisfy us. As Augustine, who served as a bishop in North Africa in the early fifth century wrote so eloquently in his Confessions:
“And so we humans, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you—we who carry our immortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. Yet these humans, due part of your creation as they are, still long to praise you. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.” 21
~Jerry Sittser, the Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000), 38-39
Continued tomorrow. . .
Reference:
20. Joseph F. Powers, ed., Francis de Sales: Finding God Wherever You Are: Selected Spiritual Writings (Hyde Park, N.Y.:New City, 1993), 32
21. Agustine, The Confessions (Hyde Prk, N.Y.: New City, 1997), 39
continued with tomorrows post
Links to previous Jerry Sittser’s posts: * A Startling Conclusion, *All is vanity. . .’, * Ambiguity
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
