Encouraged by this today…and praying for Colorado.
“In all of [this growth in simplicity], we can sometimes get the mistaken impression of uninterrupted progress forward. Even the use of the term ‘stages’ can unwittingly convey the idea of leaving one level for a higher one, never to return again. I have not found it to be so. My experience has been much more fluid and undulating. One day I may be experiencing an intimate attention to Christ’s presence that is well-nigh amazing, and the next day I am in the ‘Slough of Despond.’ I can alternate between being meekly submissive and stubbornly rebellious with surprising speed…
But it is not a spiritual roller coaster either, because through all the motion there is a sense of progress and growth. Whereas before the hard thing was to seek God’s face, more and more the hard thing is to refrain from seeking him. Although many times we do not pay attention to the holy Whisper, increasingly we do. We are less and less discouraged by our many wanderings in the wilderness because, having tasted the land of promise, we desire it more and more. As much as we may flirt with double-minded living, our real love is singleness of purpose, and increasingly it is capturing our heart…
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, ‘Pray for me that I not loosen my grip on the hands of Jesus even under the guise of ministering to the poor.’ That is our first task: to grip the hands of Jesus with such tenacity that we are obliged to follow his lead, to seek first his kingdom…
A fourth advice in holy obedience is to get up quickly and keep going if you stumble and fall. You will fall, you know. I shared one incident of victory, but I could also tell you of so many times when stubborn self-will would shake its defiant fist at the gentle Voice…
But when we do fail we do not need to give excessive time mourning the loss. We need to make confession, get up, and start again immediately. Nor should we linger at the site of battles won. The issue in holy obedience is not whether we failed or succeeded yesterday or this morning, but whether we are obedient now. Does heaven’s light blind us to all other affections now? Is our eye single, are we living in simplicity now?
None of us can live in holy obedience on our own. We need the help and encouragement, and even rebuke, of our brothers and sisters.
In our day a great crowd of concerns presses into our little lives, demanding attention. Neighbors are lonely; marriages are floundering; social injustice is prolific; world hunger is escalating. We are pulled, pushed, torn. We need not answer these concerns by rushing out in double-minded obedience. With our eyes blinded to all else by a flaming vision of God, we may respond decisively in holy obedience.”
Foster, Freedom of Simplicity, pgs. 119, 125, 127, 128, 129