The other day, I told my friend from school that I haven't had much time for reading or studying this summer. With Mom ill, and working full-time and waking up early in the morning, I haven't had much time to do those things. Drew said that it sounds like I'm living much more of the active life than the contemplative life this summer. I've been thinking about that the last few days, and considering what it means to do it well.I am so glad to be living an active life this summer. There is so much good that comes from months on end of classes, reading, studying, and discussing ideas and literature, but I am so grateful for the time that I must live the things I've learned. I go to college and seek to grow as a human being with a soul and a mind so that I live the active life excellently.
Plato and Shakespeare, Dante, Dostoevsky and Dr. Smith has so much to say about living well. It's a good thing to learn what they wrote and what they teach, and to think about it and evaluate it, and take it to heart. But I want to do more than just know these things. I want it to be the knowledge that changes how I live from a day-to-day basis. I want it to inform how I spend my time, how I interact with people at work, how I view the world around me.
And more than that, I want who God is, what I know of Him, and the theology that I hold, to affect and change how I live. This knowledge that I gain at school is not so that I can simply know more; it is so that I can study and know God, and so that I can understand human nature and His creation, and live according to His commandments. I pray that the knowledge of Him would push me forward to do both the contemplative and the active well, all for His glory.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
2 Peter 1:3-7
1 comment:
Shannon,
I am blown away this moment at how God has so clearly spoken through you and timed it so perfectly. I have been learning/thinking about this exact same thing. About how so often I think thoughts of what I should do, but I never put them into practice. Like in Screwtape Letters when Screwtape says that the way to get the Christian down is to keep the thoughts of doing good things just that - thoughts, and never let them turn into actions. I also have just finished memorizing II Peter 1:1-11 and that passage you wrote in this post I went over today in my devotions and thought how I must make an effort to add to my faith all these actions. I remember the feeling as a child of working so hard to "be good" and how there were so many battles won and lost and the potency of those. Now, grown up, I feel like I so often forget to focus on living well. I just live however my day turns out. But I must do things purposely to please my Lord and bless others. Thank you so much for posting this. I'm amazed at God's speaking so clearly. Now, I must obey what He has spoken.
Love,
J.
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