Captured By "Easy"
There is a deep lie in the notion that "convenience" and "easy" are most important. I have never known something to be very important that didn't take hard work.
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Being a typical man (that’s not a bad thing!) I always assume I don’t need to read the directions! After all, I’m educated. I’m capable. I know what’s going on, right? Uh, yeah, right.
So, with that confidence (perhaps overconfidence), I launched into putting together the table we had just purchased from the Do It Yourself store. It said “Do It Yourself,” after all. Several hours later, frayed nerves snapping, I decide to look at the directions again. What a humbling experience!
But in a modern society where everything seems to have an “easy” answer, an easy explanation, and a convenient path, we fall into the trap that everything should be easy. And that, my angel, is a dangerous mindset.
To be sure, modern life has made many chores of the past easier, and that has had remarkable results for humans. Modernity isn’t all bad, as some would have us believe. But neither is modernity all good, especially when it comes to the timeless struggle for spiritual maturity. This task, which is the task of each of us without exception, defies the “easy” answers of the spiritual “gurus” of our modern age.
These “gurus” want us to believe that spiritual maturity is “easy.” All we have to do is succumb to their exclusive tutelage. Even if their path seems difficult, as long as we listen only to them, we will “progress.” These “wolves in sheep’s clothing” long to capture and make us their own.
But spiritual maturity, like all the timeless struggles common to all men, require us to avoid the “easy” answers of our so-called “modern” world.
Look at our Gospel Lesson today in Luke 6:46-49, 7:1.
The Lord said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” After he had ended all his sayings in the hearing of the people he entered Capernaum.
A solid spiritual growth and maturity foundation always begins with a singular commitment to Jesus Christ.
If He is Lord, then He IS Lord.
This simple yet not easy foundation means my spiritual life is contingent always on my focus on Him. The consequences of this singular focus include several practical outcomes that refuse an “easy” solution.
This singular focus means I must regularly inventory my own motivation, always remember that my spiritual life isn’t a life of isolation, and stay awake to the multitude of distractions always calling me to sidetrack my spiritual progress. In other words, I have to have the Church because I cannot and will not do this by myself!
Regularly inventorying my motives means practicing the difficult Orthodox Christian discipline of Repentance. This willingness to know myself so that I can be guided by the Holy Spirit to the most broken places in my soul takes great courage, confidence in Christ, and love for Christ.
Add to this discipline the necessary Orthodox Christian discipline of communion, and you begin to see the power of accountability to move you to a more mature and life-giving Faith. There is nothing like the hard work of relationships inviting me to discover my truest self and deepest needs!
This brings me to the central consequence of repentance and community: the Orthodox Christian discipline of Attentiveness! All of Orthodox Christianity's wisdom is about strengthening my will so that I am enabled by the Holy Spirit to keep choosing well and to know how to choose well. It is this pattern and practice of Attentiveness that opens my soul to knowing God and to being known fully by others!
A beautiful woman named Justina lived near the great city of Antioch at the end of the 2nd century. Her beauty was famous, but her heart had decided long ago to be wed to Christ alone, so she lived in virginity and devotion to Christ. A certain young man, wealthy and influential, decided he would go to a man named Cyprian, who was well-versed in the demonic dark magic of the day. He paid Cyprian to bewitch Justina so she would marry him. After trying repeatedly, Cyprian realized that Justina’s faith was stronger than his demons and finally gave up. When he asked how she refused, she shared Christ with him, and Cyprian burned all his magic books, renounced Satan and all his demonic influences, and received baptism as a Christian. Cyprian became so devoted to Christ that he was made a bishop in the area. But soon, he and St. Justina were arrested for being Christians and were beheaded for their faith in Christ in 304 AD. These heroes escaped the deadly delusion of “easy!”
Today, is the foundation of your spiritual life strong? What is your life built upon? Are you trying to do this work by yourself? Perhaps it’s time to admit this isn’t an easy undertaking and learn to lovingly give yourself to the arms of the wisdom of the Church. Only then will we be able to avoid being captured by “easy” and live a Normal Orthodox Christian life!
P.S. When you, O godly-minded one, had been converted from magic art to knowledge of God, you became a most skillful healer for the whole world, O wise Cyprian, granting cures to them that honor you with Justina; with her, pray the man-befriending Master to save us, your servants who sing your praise.
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Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV
As newly-illumined after 50 years in the same Protestant denomination, I'm learning the necessity and the hard work of continual repentance. How much I treasure the prayers from the Divine Liturgy:
For pardon and remission of our sins and transgressions, let us ask the Lord.
For that which is good and beneficial for our souls, and for peace for the world, let us ask the Lord.
That we may complete the remaining time of our life in peace and repentance, let us ask the Lord.
And let us ask for a Christian end to our life, peaceful, without shame and suffering, and for a good defense before the awesome judgment seat of Christ.
easy = superficial. easy = avoidance of struggle, maintaining our world- and passion- boundedness. easy = lamentable default setting for me if not guard and remain vigilant, correct and struggle against with God's help. The easy prevents us from discovering and struggling against our deeper passions that lie beneath "easy" ones. The superficial and easy cannot lead to the transformation the deepest distortions and disfigurement of man/woman; barrier to growing in prayer. Easier written than lived, of course.