Those who seek knowledge

“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity.

There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is Vanity.

There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.” 

Bernard of Clairvaux 

What is the greatest commandment?

So love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. - Deuteronomy 6:5

The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbours as much as you love yourself.’” - Luke 10:27

Bishop N.T. Wright talks about the competing gospels of rationalism and romanticism in his book - Simply the Good News. With our complex world being pulled apart by the Enlightenment, we are now partly scientific, partly political, and now mostly philosophical.  People now see the world as being in two parts - God looking after the spiritual and we taking care of our worldly concerns.

So is it a wonder that with our renewed sense of the spiritual that we may have forgotten about our minds?

Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. - Romans 12:2

Today, we might actually say that the spiritual transformation is what renews the mind and not the other way.

We have a question that we still need to answer - how do we love God with all of our mind?

Henri Nouwen does not help answer this question in his book - The Way of the Heart. He distinguishes between prayer of the mind and prayer of the heart.

He actually says that when we pray with our mind, we merely talk to God or think about God.  He feels that both of these activities are accomplished from a place of detachment and that we talk about things on our mind or things we are trying to work out.  In fact, he goes so far to say that when we pray like that, it is almost like we are talking to ourselves and that there is no real engagement with God at all. Our core is not involved at all.

In fact, Henri was not the first to talk like this.  Theophan the Recluse, the nineteenth-century Russian mystic, Thomas Merton, the twentieth-century monastic leader of the desert fathers started this conversation.

We are neither of these individuals and as much as I appreciate the teaching of our desert fathers, I would like to know more about what Paul meant about being transformed by the renewing of my mind.

The Present is Not the Key to the Past

 

Passions

How do we follow the God-given passions we have verses the ones that will undercut us?  Seeking spiritual discernment is an important answer to that question.

When the Spirit is on the move, it's characterised by:

• Christ-centred spirituality in every aspect of life;
• rejection of all prejudice, class/ethnic/educational barriers, exclusiveness, and denominationalism. When it follows the Spirit, the Body of Believers knowingly chooses to counter-model prejudices by living without regard to them.
• bringing attention and worship to Jesus Christ, and awareness of God's/Jesus'/Spirit's work.
• an unusual level of passion, energy, or impact.

 Look deep into my heart, God,
    and find out everything
    I am thinking. Don’t let me follow evil ways,
    but lead me in the way
    that time has proven true. You have looked deep
into my heart, Lord,
    and you know all about me.
 You know when I am resting
    or when I am working,
    and from heaven
    you discover my thoughts. - Psalm 139:23-24, 1-2

 How do we escape the bondage of conflicting desires?

Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong.- Romans 7:19

In Israel's history, the practise of circumcision became a spiritual metaphor for faithfulness.

 You and your descendants are stubborn, but the Lord will make you willing to obey him and love him with all your heart and soul, and you will enjoy a long life. - Deuteronomy 30:6

 This was so much so that uncircumcision was a metaphor for impurity and unfaithfulness.

Paul picks this up in his letter to the Romans arguing that true circumcision is not a matter of a physical nature.

 To be a real Jew you must obey the Law. True circumcision is something that happens deep in your heart, not something done to your body. And besides, you should want praise from God and not from humans. - Romans 2:29

 Envision your future with an emphasis on your personal strengths following your passions, do not focus on your weaknesses. This shift in focus will empower you to leverage your strengths and build upon them to eventually see past impairments and concentrate on the lifelong benefits your strengths provide. When you are able to change your attitude, you will be in control of your life and this enables balance and affirmation in your abilities.

Growth

“With the help of the thorn in my foot, I spring higher than anyone with sound feet.” - Soren Kierkegaard

“What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.” …“Keep your eyes on the one who refuses to turn stones into bread, jump from great heights or rule with great temporal power. Keep your eyes on the one, who says, ‘blessed are the poor, the gentle, those who mourn and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted in the cause of righteousness.’ … Keep your eyes on the one who is poor with the poor, weak with the weak and rejected with the rejected. That one is the source of all peace.” -- Henri Nouwen

“Lust is a thirsty man craving salt.” - Frederick Buchner

 Growth is a leadership assumption and aspiration.

While leaders have always had the job of developing people at work, today’s workers demand that their identities and aspirations be valued and developed along with their skills too. After all, the leaders growing within our organisations can and do use their talents outside of our businesses. Their efforts create a lasting effect wherever they go.

So who we are on the inside shows up when we are most vulnerable.  If skills are all we develop than our personal values will be more demonstrable once those skills are no longer an asset we can use in life.

You cannot fool God, so don’t make a fool of yourself! You will harvest what you plant.- Galatians 6:7

Spirit of discontent

God gives us a great privilege and after a while, the privilege becomes an expectation. Then when the expectation is not met, it turns into discontent.

Some people would call this criticism, but there’s a big difference in being constructively discontent and being critical. If somebody says, “There’s got to be a better way to do this,” you can see if there’s leadership potential by asking, “Have you ever thought about what that better way might be?” If they say no, they are being critical, not constructive. But if they say yes, they are challenged by a constructive spirit of discontent. That’s the unscratchable itch.

On the other hand, murmuring discontent is such a deadly and dangerous con­dition that has existed for generations and threatened the life and growth of faith communities for ages. An episode in the life of Israel shows that murmuring discontent is not only dangerous but also lethal, causing a host of spiritually ruinous conditions. The tragedy of murmuring discontent is cancerous in nature; a slow and insidious poison, its effects take years to be seen. Worse, murmuring discontent can also be very addictive.

Discontentment is an emotion that is capable of dwarfing us spiritually because it is directed against the Lord. If we are discontented with His will for us, then we're not going to grow in our faith.

 Everyone struggles with discontentment at one time or another, and it’s particularly difficult when we are discontent with the church because no one can hurt a believer as deeply as a group of other believers.

“Indeed, how divided my heart has been and still is! I want to love God, but also to make a career. I want to be a good Christian, but also to have my success as a teacher, preacher, or speaker. I want to be a saint, but also enjoy the sensations of the sinner. I want to be close to Christ but also popular and liked by many people. No wonder that living becomes a tiring enterprise. The characteristic of a saint is, to borrow Kierkegaard’s words, ‘To will one thing.’ Well , I will more than one thing, am double-hearted, double-minded, and have very divided loyalty... You cannot follow him just a little bit. Everything or nothing.” - Henri Nouwen

Does anyone struggle with this image of contentment?

 I am not conceited, Lord,
    and I don’t waste my time
    on impossible schemes. But I have learned to feel safe
    and satisfied,
    just like a young child
    on its mother’s lap.

 People of Israel,
    you must trust the Lord    now and forever. - Psalm 131

Shakespeare catches a bit of contentment in that it does not last long when we are all by ourselves. He tells us the story in The Comedy of Errors --

FIRST MERCHANT

Sir, I commend you to your own content.

	FIRST MERCHANT exists
	ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE He that commends me to mine own content Commends me to the thing I cannot get. I to the world am like a drop of water That in the ocean seeks another drop, Who, falling there to find his fellow forth, Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself. So I, to find a mother and a brother, In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.