I had a good conversation recently with a f/Friend. It started out extremely intensely, since I found myself defending the idea that Quakerism needed to be grounded in a sense of Scripture being a checking authority in discerning the will of God. I believe that this is true, but as I argued the point I felt convicted of my own failure to live up to the life that Christ Jesus calls me to with the example of his life and teachings. For all I could say about the need for scriptural authority in the Religious Society of Friends, I cannot escape the fact that my own life does not conform to the life of Christ.
I act out of ego – out of desire and fear – so very often, and it is relatively rare that I act out of agape-love. And there is so much of my life that I hold back from God. I shy away from the cross. I expect that I should be able to be a suffering servant without having to suffer for it! I expect that I should be able to say to my Lord: “Yes, Lord! I hand my life over to you – just as long as I have health insurance and food to eat.” I don’t want to face the fact that God offers the ministers of God the same health insurance that is offered to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
I feel released. I feel clear in abandoning expectation of anything, even necessities. Maybe it serves God’s will in my life that I go without healthcare. Maybe God is glorified best in my life when I give up all semblance of control, all wealth, all security. My f/Friend spoke of his experience as the son of two missionaries and remarked on how they lived in great poverty, practically begging from the religious community they served. He related this to the tendency for men and women of God to live like beggars. Consider Francis and the true monastics, Rumi, the Buddha and his monastics. Perhaps the path that God has called me to is that of being a beggar, renouncing all semblance of self-sufficiency.
Am I truly willing to die for my faith? Am I willing to be homeless, without healthcare, literally begging for my daily bread, if that’s what God is calling me to? I must cease fretting so much about how I am to do God’s will and simply do it. Thy will be done, Lord God – even if it means humiliation and death. And this means not resenting others who are making different choices. If I am truly grounded in God’s call for me and truly given over to follow that call, whatever be the consequences, the I have no reason to be upset with anyone. That’s not to say that I should let sinful behavior off the hook – but speaking to it should never be about me. My only motivation should be Christ-like care and compassion for my fellow beings.
It is time for me to let go of everything but God, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, seeking no vindication but that of my Parent in Heaven. Come what may, no matter what others think, I pray that I might be faithful to God, walking in the Way of God’s son, Jesus Christ.