For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16
“When we enter upon the spiritual we should consider, and examine to the bottom, what we are. And then we should find ourselves worthy of all contempt, and such as do not deserve the name of Christians, subject to all kinds of misery, and numberless accidents, which trouble us, and cause perpetual vicissitudes in our health, in our humors, in our internal and external dispositions: in fine, persons whom God would humble by many pains and labors, as well within as without. After this, we should not wonder that troubles, temptations, oppositions and contradictions, happen to us from men. We ought, on the contrary, to submit ourselves to them, and bear them as long as God pleases, as things highly advantageous to us. That the greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon divine grace.”
Brother Lawrence (1605-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life (London: Epworth Press) 8.
When we look at the idea of examine in the thinking one of the greatest Christian writings of all time, we realize we don’t deserve the label ‘Christian’ and become, more than ever, dependent on divine grace.
We also discover that the only right way to navigate the troubles, temptations, oppositions and contradictions of life is to face them, embrace them, and as Brother Lawrence says, submit ourselves to them and bear them as long as God desires.
I had a great but brief visit to see my parents. Their days are numbered, but they are in a good place for now. When you think about it, days are numbered for all of us. Only those who pause to examine themselves, will make the most of them. Will you?