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.