Merton kicked my tailNovember 3, 2009
For all the tireless, perfectionist, achievers out there… let Thomas Merton kick your tail like he did mine!
“It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with everything we have done. In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being we must learn to be detached from the results of our own activity. We must withdraw ourselves, to some extent, from effects that are beyond our control and be content with the good will and the work that are the quiet expression of our inner life. We must be content to live without watching ourselves live, to work without expecting an immediate reward, to love without an instantaneous satisfaction, and to exist without any special recognition.
We cannot find happiness in our work if we are always extending ourselves beyond ourselves and beyond the sphere of our work in order to find ourselves greater than we are. Our Christian destiny is a great one: but we cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great. For our own greatness is illusory, and if we pay too much attention to it we will be lured out of the peace and stability of the being God gave us, and seek to live in a myth we have created for ourselves. It is, therefore, a very great thing to be little, which is to say: to be ourselves. And when we are truly ourselves we lose most of the futility that keeps us constantly comparing ourselves with others in order to see how big we are.” Deck the Halls ipod -Thomas Merton, “No Man is an Island” Leave a Reply
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November 3rd, 2009 @ 1:09 pm
Tru dat! Reminds me of this from Oswald Chambers, who rather continually kicks my tail.
“We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, “What a wonderful man of prayer he is!” or, “What a great woman of devotion she is!” If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
We want to be able to say, “Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!” But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life “hidden with Christ in God” in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.”
November 3rd, 2009 @ 1:54 pm
one of my favorite christian thinkers of all time.
November 3rd, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
Good to connect with you, Aaron. Love the Merton quote. What is there beyond us? To “deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus” is the highest and greatest achievement for man. Keep it up!!!