I’m sure that we all regularly
feel a desire to escape from this world; its noise, temptations,
responsibilities… Devotion to God is not separation from the world! Let’s learn
how to live in the peace of God whilst holding the delicate balance of being
totally involved whilst being totally separate.
To meditate/pray upon
John 17:15,
18 “My prayer is not that
you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…As
you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
Luke 5:16 ‘But Jesus often withdrew to
lonely places and prayed.’
Jesus sets us the perfect example of prayer and walking with the Father,
whilst maintaining a busy ‘work’ schedule.
Some Christians in history have sought to live separately from the world
for noble reasons such as devotion to prayer and seeking holiness. However,
Jesus has put us on a mission in this world. Let’s learn from Jesus – He was
present to serve and teach people, but regularly withdrew for prayer.
Simeon Stylites
Simeon Stylites is an extreme example of the temptation to separate
ourselves from the world.
Simeon, born 388, the son of a shepherd from modern day Turkey, seems to
have devoted his life to Christ at 13. After reading the Beatitudes (Matt.
5:1-11) he joined a monastery, but was asked to leave because of his extreme
devotions!
‘From the first gave
himself up to the practice of an austerity so extreme and to all appearance so
extravagant, that his brethren judged him, perhaps not unwisely, to be unsuited
to any community life.’ (Thurston, The Catholic Encyclopedia.)
On leaving the monastery he went to live in a hut for one and a half
years, later taking to standing for as long as he was able in prayer,
subsequently, he confined himself in a cave.
Pilgrims, asking for prayer and advice, visited him in large numbers and
so he sought his final place of solitude and devotion atop a pole, 20 feet from
the ground. Simeon spent 47 years in this extreme isolation. He died on September
2nd 459. A disciple found his body stooped over in prayer.
Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem, which contains these lines,
O Jesus, if thou wilt
not save my soul,
Who may be saved? who
is it may be saved?
Who may be made a
saint, if I fail here?
Show me the man hath
suffered more than I.
For did not all thy
martyrs die one death?
For either they were
stoned, or crucified,
Or burned in fire, or
boiled in oil, or sawn
In twain beneath the
ribs; but I die here
Today, and whole
years long, a life of death.
The poem is fictional but his words to his mother before his death do
express a lack of robust assurance of salvation by grace,
"If we are worthy, we shall see one another in the life to come."
There in only one who has suffered to save us, and that is Christ! We
contribute nothing to our salvation! Devotions and austerities tempt us to feel
that we are appeasing God in some way, but we can in fact be missing God’s
grace in the gospel.
God has sent us into the world, to be in community and bring the love
and grace of God to those around us. It may seem less heroic and poetical that
living up a pole, but glory.
How are you
doing?
How are you doing at being ‘in the world’? Are you actively involved in
community beyond the church and your family? Pray for God’s direction in this.
How are you doing at withdrawing to pray and walking with a active sense
of God’s presence in all that you do in the world? It’s really helpful to begin
the day in devotional prayer if one is to continue with an awareness of God’s
presence through the day.
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