This Temporal World

What is this world? Jesus has something interesting to say about life in this world: "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." John 12:24. Here is a verse that is completely contradictory to the American way. Our society today breeds and lives off fun, indulgence, pampering, and the easy life. Our economy relies on the fact that we live for this world. Of course I'm not asking you to never buy anything from the store again, but we need to pay attention to how we are living our lives and where our hearts truly lie. I remember my grandma use to say to me (this was in high school, some of my darker days and way before I even knew about Orthodoxy) "Steve how many hours have you spent playing video games this week?" "umm... I don't know, maybe 30 hours" "And how many hours did you spend praying, going to church, or reading the Bible?" "I went to church on Sunday, that’s it" I remember I use to feel so guilty after these phone calls, but just forget about it and continue "living it up".

So the question is do we love this world more than God? Can you not bear the idea of parting with this world or something in it? It is so critical to answer this question honestly because salvation depends on it. If you cannot survive without things of this world, then how would you survive in heaven? Think about it, if you HAVE to watch a certain TV program or play video games to get by in life then you have become dependant on something other than God and you draw your life from the temporal, not the eternal. What do you think would happen when you come face to face with Jesus in heaven and you were to ask Him "Oh do you mind if I watch "Friends" every Wednesday night? It's my favorite show and I would die without it." I bring this issue up because I need to uproot so many passions (something a person is enslaved to) that have been rooted in my heart.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” Matthew 16:24-28

I would like to add what my Orthodox Study Bible has in the commentary as well: “Here Jesus states the central (central, not peripheral) paradox of the Christian faith. In grasping the temporal, we lose the eternal; in sacrificing everything we can know, we gain unimaginable riches. In dying, we live. When the Son of Man comes in glory to reward each according to his works, it will be shown that absolutely nothing exceeds the value of finding true life, the salvation of one’s soul.”

I know you hear “deny yourself” all the time, but are we really doing it? Do you deny yourself what you really want, or do you just do things that don’t matter that much to you? I again am guilty of this.

If you think you don’t have anything you are to attached to, then I present you with a challenge. Find the thing you love most and give it up for a week or a month. You will then know if you are too attached to something.

My dear brothers and sisters let us all be ever vigilant for the sake of our souls and truly deny ourselves and pray that God will aid us and grant us that which desire, eternal life.

Why is it so hard?

Tonight I was thinking about why it is so hard to focus on God and effortless to put all our energies into frivolous activities. It seems contradictory to me that I can remember almost every detail in a 150 page video game book, but memorizing a Psalm takes enormous effort. As I contemplated the “why” I thought of one possible answer. When we are not focused on God and are caught up with the cares of this world, the evil one has nothing to worry about, we are already losing the battle. This is why it is easy for us to get caught up in anything (except God of course); Satan has us exactly where he wants us, drifting further away from God. In addition, the more time we spend on something the more likely it is going to become a passion (I know from experience). Then not only do we have to struggle against the evil one but against ourselves as well because we have become dependant on something other than God. The moment we focus on God the evil one (and our passions) attacks us, causing us to struggle to get to God. Lord help us! This would explains why I could play video games easily for 8 hours straight, but have a hard time praying attentively for even 15 minuets. It still mystifies me that the most important thing in our life is the hardest to strive after. Here is a quote from St. Theophan’s The Spiritual Life that sheds more light on the subject: “… Abandon a certain wrongful activity that often strikes and afflicts almost everyone: That is, the fact that we spare no labor on any matter except when it comes to that of salvation. We want to think that we have only to contemplate salvation and desire it, and everything is all set. That is not how it happens in reality. That matter of salvation is the most important thing. Consequently it is the most difficult. This is by virtue of its importance and by the labor required. Labor then, for the Lord’s sake!” Brothers and Sisters in Christ let us take up our cross daily and strive for salvation in Christ.

Complacency to Zeal and back again

I have been exposed to Orthodox Christianity for about 2 years now and I have dealt (and are dealing with) the ups and downs of the spiritual life. I have noticed in my spiritual walk that their are definitely times when you are more motivated then others. Bouncing back and forth between zeal and complacency is something I feel is not very healthy. This reminds me of people who jump back and forth between dieting and over eating. By taking it to the extreme they lose weight quickly and then they quit because it is to hard to maintain, in which they gain the weight back. As we know shifting from overweight to underweight repeatedly is unhealthy for heart. This is the same in the spiritual life as well, except it is our soul that pays the price. I only speak of this because I have done both, numerous times in fact, and will probably continue until I find the right balance. I guess the thing to remember is that this struggle we are in is a journey. Many people also use the analogy of the spiritual life as a race or marathon (thank you St. Paul), so I’ll try and not make up any more witty parallels. What I want to point out is the practical, are we really running the race? To answer this question we have to both know ourselves and look at our lives. We have to first off know how much we can handle. For example, if someone is not keeping up with their daily prayer rule, then they should probably not try to follow extremely difficult cannon laws. Hopefully we all can be honest with ourselves and know how much we can truly do and what we can't do (of course our spiritual father can help us as well). Next we have to look at our lives. What are we doing with it? Are we killing ourselves to do absolutely everything the Church tells us or completely ignoring everything that we learn from the Church? This is different for every person, which is why we combine this with the first point to see if we are be complacent or over zealous. The goal of course is that we have enough zeal to make good progress, but not to burn out or slack off. May the Lord have mercy on us all and help us find the balance.