Post by Josh on Jul 28, 2007 8:11:38 GMT -8
So, I'm using a book entitled Desert Wisdom: Sayings of the Desert Fathers, put together by Henri Nouwen, as a devotional right now. It is a compilation of wise sayings from that wonderful (though often maligned by Protestants) time period in Church history when believers fled to the deserts, forsaking the compulsions of society, to seek the face of God and (usually) a more simple, communal life. This was the 400s and 500s AD when Christianity was now the official religion of Rome. Gone were the martyrs who had been the big Christian heroes of the earlier centuries. Now it was the monastics with their self-sacrifice and pursuit of wisdom and deeper communion with God that served as the reminders of being sold out for Christ in a corrupted world. Most of these 'desert fathers and mothers', far from selfishly cutting themselves off from the world (as some Protestant perspectives would have us believe), speak volumes to us about how to live as Chrsitians in the world, but yet not of it, as Scripture exhorts us.
So, I'm going to share some of my favorite quotes. Here's the first and the subject is work:
"It was said about John the Little that one day he said to his older brother: I want to be free from care and not to work but to worship God without interruption. And he took his robe off and went into the desert.
After staying there one week, he returned to his brother. And when he knocked at the door, his brother asked without opening it: 'Who is it?' He replied, 'It's John, your brother'.
The brother said, 'John has become an angel and does not live among people anymore.' Then he begged and said, 'It's me!' but his brother did not open the door and left him there in distress until the next morning. And he finally opened the door and said, 'If you are a human being, you have to work again in order to live.'
Then John repented, saying, 'Forgive me, brother, for I was wrong'.
Thoughts?
So, I'm going to share some of my favorite quotes. Here's the first and the subject is work:
"It was said about John the Little that one day he said to his older brother: I want to be free from care and not to work but to worship God without interruption. And he took his robe off and went into the desert.
After staying there one week, he returned to his brother. And when he knocked at the door, his brother asked without opening it: 'Who is it?' He replied, 'It's John, your brother'.
The brother said, 'John has become an angel and does not live among people anymore.' Then he begged and said, 'It's me!' but his brother did not open the door and left him there in distress until the next morning. And he finally opened the door and said, 'If you are a human being, you have to work again in order to live.'
Then John repented, saying, 'Forgive me, brother, for I was wrong'.
Thoughts?