John Climacus: Finishing Well

But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. Acts 20:24

“Some often expressed their doubts to each other and said: ‘Are we accomplishing anything brothers? Are we obtaining our requests? Will the Lord accept us again? Will He open to us?’ And to this others would reply: ‘Who knows, as our brothers the Ninevites said, if God will repent and will deliver us even from great punishment? In any case, let us do our part. And if He opens the door, well and good. And if not, blessed is the Lord God who in His justice has closed the door to us. At least let us persist in knocking at the door till the end of our life.”

John Climacus (6th century monk) in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (Harper & Brothers, 1959) 31.

In today’s Scripture, the apostle Paul expresses his unswerving resolve to finishing the task God gave Him. Then in reading John Climacus, we realize that this is not easy. We wonder, “Are we accomplishing anything brothers?”

I met with some of the Founders of Kingdom Capital Fund last night for dinner. They admit they wondered that for years in the early days of the last two decades. But they persisted, sometimes asking, “Are we obtaining our requests?”

And now through the God as CEO program, they are rallying professionals in large numbers to shift from building wealth to building God’s kingdom. And Climacus adds to focus not on the results but on doing our part.

When people start to get it, KCF rallies them to give generously to ministry partners. To read the report of my training with ministry partners, click here.

Tonight I speak at a KCF 2.0 event. I appreciate your prayers for Spirit-filled speaking and receptive hearts. Participants will receive a branded copy of my KCF devotional, Finishing Well. Click here to download your free copy.

And resolve to focus not on achieving results or obtaining requests. Instead, ask yourself what finishing well looks like for you. Pursue that.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. Acts 4:36-37

“Those who have really determined to serve Christ, with the help of spiritual fathers and their own self-knowledge will strive before all else to choose a place, and a way of life, and a habitation, and exercises suitable for them. For community life is not for all, on account of greed; and not for all are places of solitude, on account of anger. But each will consider what is most suited to his needs.”

John Climacus (6th century monk) in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (Harper & Brothers, 1959) 5.

What a privilege to provide biblical and practical teaching in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, yesterday! Kingdom Capital Fund hosted ministry partners. We had 40 in attendance exploring the topic of “From Vision to Execution — Building the Operational Backbone” (see header photo of participants above).

KCF Board Chair (and dear friend), Steve Jankord, introduced me and urged everyone to subscribe to Daily Meditations. I shared teaching from The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes to give them a framework for growing ministries through faithful activities. Then I pointed them to the GTP diagnostic tool and templates to strengthen capacity.

Today, I attend the KCF board meeting as a special advisor and have dinner with the KCF Founders. See their 6-minute video here if you did not watch it yesterday. The KCF Founders are like Joseph, also known as Barnabas, the son of encouragement. In the video they rightly appear as ordinary Joes who have chosen an extraordinary way of life together.

They have all agreed to shift from building wealth (greed as Climacus put) to building the kingdom (generosity as the KCF Founders put it). I am advising them regarding ways to grow deeper in this way of life and how to share it more widely with others. And Climacus would add that it is needful not to pressure anyone to this way of life but to invite them to consider it.

And what about you? Want to join the community of people committed to living, giving, serving, and loving generously? In June 2026, the Generosity Monk team plans to release a new website and social and video channels to reach the world. One invitation will be to adopt the Generosity Monk rule of life. Stay tuned to see what it is.

For now, ask God to help you be like Joseph who released assets, not just income, to build the kingdom. And if you need help with that, reply to this email. I can assist you. Once you adopt this way of life you will see God will entrust you with more resources to steward. You won’t end up empty but rather enriched for greater generosity.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:24

“I saw among these holy fathers things that were truly profitable and admirable. I saw a brotherhood gathered and united in the Lord, with a wonderful active and contemplative life. For they were so occupied with divine thoughts and they exercised themselves so much in good deeds that there was scarcely any need for the superior to remind them of anything, but of their own good will they aroused one another to divine vigilance.”

John Climacus (6th century monk) in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (Harper & Brothers, 1959) 13.

There’s something that happens when we journey spiritually together with others. It creates a brotherhood and sisterhood of people united in the Lord and committed to divine thoughts.

When we think about what God desires for us it inspires us to do good deeds. This happens not because some external superior dictates it. This service flows from internal commitment with divine vigilance.

I pray this for the larger community of Daily Meditations readers. That God will make us into a global community committed to contemplative living and contagious giving.

Yesterday I invited you to contribute to the rebuilding of the Generosity Monk website and establishment of video and social media channels to spread the reach of generosity resources worldwide, but I failed to give you the link. Click here.

Today I do a workshop for about 50 ministry workers called “From Vision to Execution — Building the Operational Backbone” with a focus on turning mission and strategy into repeatable, healthy operations.

Kingdom Capital Fund is hosting it and I will integrate themes from my book, The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes. I appreciate your prayers for Spirit-filled facilitation and receptive hearts.

Kingdom Capital Fund was formed by a group of founders that shifted from building wealth to building God’s kingdom. They are like the “holy fathers” in today’s post. Watch an awesome 6-minute video about them here.

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

“It is a great disgrace for us to worry about anything that cannot help us in the hour of our need—that is to say, the hour of our death. For as the Lord said, this means looking back and not being fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Knowing how fickle we novices are and how easily we turn to the world through visiting, or being with, worldly people, when someone said to Him: ‘Suffer me first to go and bury my father,’ our Lord replied, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead.’”

John Climacus (6th century monk) in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (Harper & Brothers, 1959) 5.

On step 2 of 30, Climacus calls us to detach from the things of this world. These are the things we think are needful to us but they are not needful to us.

Few do this better than my wife Jenni. Happy Mother’s Day Jenni. Thanks for using and enjoying things of this world but not attaching to them so that your heart is attached fully to God.

All of us do well to not worry about anything that cannot help us in our hour of need, namely our hour of death. Of course the first thing that comes to mind for most people is money.

We think we need money so we cling to it on earth. And God wants us to store it up in heaven through giving because it cannot help us at our hour of death and we cannot take it with us either.

But we are fickle like the novices the monks who have just started their spiritual journey. We have spend time in the world and we become worldly. Don’t let that be you.

The best way to learn detachment is to practice the discipline of giving. Give to something new or help something that wants to happen around you. Or make a gift to Generosity Monk.

Why? In the next month, I will introduce the Generosity Monk team and updated website and social channels. Click here to make a one-time or monthly tax-deductible gift for spreading Daily Mediations to the world.

And I appreciate your prayers for me this week. I fly to Sioux Falls, South Dakota tonight. I will see dear friends Greg Henson, Peter Goehring, Steve Jankord, and others, and speak and participate in series of events serving Kingdom Capital Fund.

So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:10-12

“Those who have surrendered themselves to God, deceive themselves if they suppose that they have no need of a director. Those who came out of Egypt had Moses as their guide, and those who fled from Sodom had an angel. The former are like those who are healed of the passions of the soul by the care of physicians: these are they who come out of Egypt. The latter are like those who long to put off the uncleanness of the wretched body. That is why they need a helper, an angel, so to speak, or at least one equal to an angel. For in proportion to the corruption of our wounds we need a director who is indeed an expert and a physician.”

John Climacus (6th century monk) in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (Harper & Brothers, 1959) 2.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent is a 30-step guide to monastic maturity. The 30 steps mirror the 30 years Christ spent in preparation. This serves as a template for a Christian’s journey toward maturity.

It outlines a spiritual journey from earthly detachment to divine love, emphasizing obedience, humility, and battling vices like anger, greed, and gluttony.

This week we will look at what John Climacus might say is needful for our own maturity and growth in generosity. On step 1 of 30 in his classic work, we learn that we need a guide.

That’s the role I feel God leading me to play in writing these daily meditations for nearly 17 years. I serve as your guide, like Moses, not because I know it all, but because God has called me to do it.

This also explains why I repeatedly invite you to surrender yourself to God. To pray the Surrender Novena daily: “Jesus I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.”

Why? The posture of surrender positions us for generous living, giving, serving, and loving, as Christ’s power and provision flows through us. If this seems hard, don’t fear.

Let me serve as your guide. Read these meditations daily. And stay tuned for an updated website to share widely with others.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. Ecclesiastes 11:5

“But if we are to love our neighbors as we ought, we must have regard to God also: for it is only in God that we can pay that debt of love aright. Now a man cannot love his neighbor in God, except he love God Himself; wherefore we must love God first, in order to love our neighbors in Him. This too, like all good things, is the Lord’s doing, that we should love Him, for He hath endowed us with the possibility of love. He who created nature sustains it; nature is so constituted that its Maker is its protector for ever.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in On Loving God (Grand Rapids: CCEL), p. 20.

Today is my last in a recent series of posts from this classic work by Bernard.

In our Scripture reading, Solomon describes the mystery of how God creates and sustains everything by reminding us that we cannot fathom or comprehend the work of God, the Maker of all things.

And Bernard adds that we cannot even love apart from God. Only in Him is the possibility of love.

Think about that. Apart from God, we cannot even love our neighbor. Only from our Maker we learn how to live, give, serve, and love generously. Try this. Go outside and go for a walk. Do it.

Notice how God loves and generously cares for His creation. Then consider the implications for your life. How can you learn from Him how to love your neighbor and live generously?

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends Your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty—and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They tell of the power of Your awesome works—and I will proclaim Your great deeds. They celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made. Psalm 145:3-9

“Righteousness is the natural and essential food of the soul, which can no more be satisfied by earthly treasures than the hunger of the body can be satisfied by air. If you should see a starving man standing with mouth open to the wind, inhaling draughts of air as if in hope of gratifying his hunger, you would think him lunatic. But it is no less foolish to imagine that the soul can be satisfied with worldly things which only inflate it without feeding it. What have spiritual gifts to do with carnal appetites, or carnal with spiritual? Praise the Lord, O my soul: who satisfieth thy mouth with good things. He bestows bounty immeasurable; He provokes thee to good, He preserves thee in goodness; He prevents, He sustains, He fills thee. He moves thee to longing, and it is He for whom thou longest.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in On Loving God (Grand Rapids: CCEL), p. 17.

The Psalmist celebrates the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is not abstract moral perfection disconnected from everyday living.

Righteousness is living in right relationship with God and others. But we act, as Bernard says, as lunatic. We think worldly things can satisfy our souls.

So God graciously provokes, preserves, and prevents. He sustains, fills, and moves, hoping we will come to the place of realizing that only He can satisfy our souls.

I think a leading hindrance to generous living, giving, serving, and loving is the lunatic lure of the world. We say yes to so many things that don’t satisfy.

If that is you, fast from whatever worldly things seek to master you. Don’t take my word for it. It comes from apostle Paul in his letter to the church in the crazy city of Corinth.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

“One praises God because He is mighty, another because He is gracious, yet another solely because He is essential goodness. The first is a slave and fears for himself; the second is greedy, desiring further benefits; but the third is a son who honors his Father.

He who fears, he who profits, are both concerned about self-interest. Only in the son is that charity which seeketh not her own (I Corinthians 13:5). Wherefore I take this saying, ‘The law of the Lord is an undefiled law, converting the soul’ (Psalm 19:7) to be of charity; because charity alone is able to turn the soul away from love of self and of the world to pure love of God.

Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire. Sometimes a slave may do God’s work; but because he does not toil voluntarily, he remains in bondage. So a mercenary may serve God, but because he puts a price on his service, he is enchained by his own greediness.

For where there is self-interest there is isolation; and such isolation is like the dark corner of a room where dust and rust befoul. Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14). But neither fear nor self-interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the soul. Only charity can convert the soul, freeing it from unworthy motives.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in On Loving God (Grand Rapids: CCEL), p. 27.

Today’s post looks at our motives. Our Scripture verse reminds us that it is needful for us to make sure our generosity is motivated by love.

Too often we can be motivated by self-interest, by benefits, and by other unworthy motives.

Bernard would say that we need to convert our soul. We need to assess our motivations, including what motivates our giving, and abandon any unworthy motivations that might render our generosity meaningless.

If we don’t have love, our generosity is a waste of time and resources.

God, purify us from unworthy motives. Free us from greed, selfishness, and desires that seek to defile our deeds. Convert our souls so that our living, giving, and serving is saturated with love. Amen.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little. Luke 7:47

“The faithful know how much need they have of Jesus and Him crucified; but though they wonder and rejoice at the ineffable love made manifest in Him, they are not daunted at having no more than their own poor souls to give in return for such great and condescending charity. They love all the more, because they know themselves to be loved so exceedingly; but to whom little is given the same loveth little.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in On Loving God (Grand Rapids: CCEL), p. 7.

If we spend much time in the giving space we see different kinds of people. Some people think too highly of themselves and act as though they have something to offer God.

How much do you imagine these people really know about loving God?

On the other hand, Bernard reminds us that we have nothing more than our own poor souls to give to God in response to his “such great and condescending charity.”

What about people who see themselves as poor souls? How much do you think they love God.

Which one are you? If we are honest, all of us at times have thought too highly of ourselves and not had a clue about loving God. Let’s bury that mindset today. Let’s put it to death.

We are poor souls who need Jesus and his ineffable love.

In effable means “something too great, intense, or sacred to be expressed in words.” We not only need this love, but as we grow in it, we will become people who live, give, serve, and love more generously.

Take five minutes today to tell Jesus how much you love Him.

What shall I return to the Lord for all His goodness to me? Psalm 116:12

“I know that my God is not merely the bounteous Bestower of my life, the generous Provider for all my needs, the pitiful Consoler of all my sorrows, the wise Guide of my course: but that He is far more than all that. He saves me with an abundant deliverance: He is my eternal Preserver, the portion of my inheritance, my glory…

’What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?’ (Psalm 116:12). Reason and natural justice alike move me to give up myself wholly to loving Him to whom I owe all that I have and am. But faith shows me that I should love Him far more than I love myself, as I come to realize that He hath given me not my own life only, but even Himself.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) in On Loving God (Grand Rapids: CCEL), p. 12.

Remember the word ‘goodness’ in the Old Testament points to God’s generosity. Today’s Scripture leans into our response or return to the Lord.

Bernard directs our attention to the fact that God is Bestower, Provider, Consoler, Guide, and Preserver. But He does not stop there. He reminds us that God loves us so much, that He has given us Himself.

So the only right return is to give ourselves wholly to God – all we are and all we have – and even to love Him more than we love ourselves. But what do we do about this practically?

Take five minutes to read Psalm 103 and list anything that comes to mind, any benefits you feel God has done for you. Then sit in silence in awe of the God who loves you so much and worship Him.

Then ask the Holy Spirit to guide your return today. This is not a one time act but your return or response today. Remember, if you do something generous, God will often replenish your supply for more generosity tomorrow.

And conclude by resolving afresh to give yourself to God. Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.