I am currently working my way through St. John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. You can download or just view it for free at Christian Classics Etheral Library. This book is incredible, it describes the process of purguing our sense and spirit of the desire for self-gratification. One thing the book so succinctly describes is the imperfections of beginners in Christianity -- the ways we let pride and self-love come between us and God. When I read this, I realized it described me and pretty much everyone I know. We are so much more interested in doing for ourselves than for God.

I think this applies to almost everything we do...I'll admit it, the idea of doing it all for God's glory scares me. Sure, I can give the idea lip service, but do I really mean it? Can I do everything in my life without any intention of gaining pleasure from the action, knowing that the only pleasure lies in glorifying God? This requires radical faith. It also requires complete separation from the habit of gaining positive sensation from spiritual exercises. If I'm only doing it to feel good...well then I'm going down the wrong road. Unfortunately this is the road that many of us follow all our lives, never knowing anything greater. Eventually, the thrill begins to fade and we are left with a prospect: do we abandon faith for something more gratifying? Or do we take faith to the next level?

This entry was posted by 141NYC, on Sunday, June 20, 2004. You can leave your response.