Faith Venture

Tomorrow is Halloween (I’m not sure in how many countries, but certainly here). As strange as it may sound, this holiday has become the new starting point for the Christmas gift rush. We have had a day for years called “Black Friday,” which is the day after Thanksgiving in late November. That was the traditional starting point for Christmas shopping. Called black in reference to the accounting ledger where black is positive and red is negative. Retailers would make or break their year on that day. Now I’m seeing newspaper articles (probably planted by PR people from retailers) about a new Black Friday as Halloween.

Part of my reading today in Thomas a Kempis was this phrase–give up your desires and gain rest. I know that for the next two months we are going to be facing a barrage of advertising designed very carefully by people trained to tap into various desires of human beings. We will suddenly find ourselves wishing we had this or that trinket, gadget or huge gift. The day before we didn’t even know it existed.

I spent a lifetime studying and contemplating freedom. Is it living without constraint? Many people think so. And act is if there are no constraints on their lives. But are we aware of all the constraints that are often hidden within us? The Desert Fathers, early Christian contemplatives who studied these things most deeply, defined an entire hierarchy of constraints within us that we may not even realize. Desire is one. Will you live the next two months as a slave to your emotions and desires which are whipped into a frenzy by advertising geniuses? Or can you step back and recognize these for what they are and retain your focus on your with-God life?

That is where you find freedom–and rest.

I often find myself in small groups or conversations where people want to talk about other people. What they said, what they meant, will they go to heaven, what’s wrong with them in the smallest, goriest detail, and on and on. I have no problem praying for others–do it all the time, well, er, at least often. But where does concern end and gossip begin? Where does idly worrying about others end and loss of focus on my own life begin?

Thomas a Kempis, writing in The Imitation of Christ, says, “Do not trouble yourself with idle cares. What matters this or that to you? Follow Me. What is it to you if a man is such and such, if another does or says this or that? You will not have to answer for others, but you will have to give an account of yourself. Why, then, do you meddle in their affairs?”

My last post talked about paying attention to others. When you meet someone, listen to them, listen to their name, observe their features and attitudes. Care for them and listen. But then don’t go away and talk about them to everyone who will listen. And worry over a comment they may have made. Don’t interfere with your own salvation and walk with God.

Your focus must be on the present. What matters is what you and God are doing now. Don’t worry about the past or the future. Don’t worry about what others say or think. When you’re with them, love them. Don’t obsess over them.