Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24
“As church and state in the Roman empire got married after the toleration edict in 312, heroic virtue was exchanged for compromise with the world, and the inevitable result was insipid mediocrity. Men and women, finding no challenge in the cities, began to flock to the Egyptian and other deserts. This was a bold encounter with the realities of existence, a challenge to all accepted norms in society, a facing of the shadow side of the human personality, and ultimately confrontation with objective evil.
The Desert Fathers were essentially solitaries, expressing their love for their neighbors by total self-oblation to God, by continuous prayer, and by handcraft work for the poor. Their lives reveal an extraordinary humility, gentleness, tenderness, sensitivity, and compassion . . . and a firm grasp of Bible teaching seems to have been based on the principle that you don’t ignore what you don’t like.”
Martin Reith in Celtic Spirituality as cited in in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 755.
Those who ignore what they don’t like in the Scriptures don’t follow Jesus but rather their own preferences. If that sounds shocking, perhaps ask yourself if it is true about you.
Our Lord Jesus Christ bids us to come and die. He challenges us to trust that the life He offers is better than anything we can contrive. But do we really live like we believe Him.
In the USA, I grew up in a context where there was little challenge to my faith. Now, the greatest challenge comes not from outsiders but rather comfortable Christians.
They don’t want to talk about the ‘radical’ aspects of the faith, which in their view, don’t relate to everyone. It seems like they ignore what they don’t like.
Today I want to honor a friend I saw this weekend, Travis Shelton. He speaks openly and boldly about the challenging financial aspects of the faith, and he coaches people to live differently.
People are listening to his voice crying out in the desert. Many log into his podcast. When we align our faith and finances, Travis would say with the Desert Fathers, we find freedom!