True Love is Content

True love is content. It has its reward in what it loves. For if you seem to love something, but really love it for the sake of something else, you actually love what you are pursuing as your real end, not that which is a means to it. (Bernard of Clairvaux)

In pursuits which are based in love the true end is that which you are pursuing. Since there are a multitude of things we can and do pursue we must question why we pursue them. If our pursuits are of money, to what end do you pursue it? greed? love? or is it facilitation of other pursuits? If our pursuits are of others, why are we pursuing them? Is it love? or does it fill a need?

If our pursuit is of God, is it because of Love? or do we want something? Do you pursue God because he is or do you pursue him because he has the ability to give you something you want?

Contemplate what it means to minister to the Lord. Seek to love him because he is and not becaue of what he has done or will do for you.

::: monastic future :::

I find the post linked below to be very interesting. It will be fun to see where this community journeys in the future with the vision they have.

The overall plan is the following: To buy land, between 30 and 100 acres, not more than 20 minutes from Lexington, on which to live, not only me and my family (who would be buying the land to be clear), but with others as well, in an intentional rural monastic community. The word "monastic" might mean something to some of you and nothing to others - depends on your familiarity I guess. Some of the pictures you have will match what we're going to do and some will not. This life we will have will be a rural, contemplative life but not a separated life. I mean that we intend to live fairly close to the town we've lived in for the last 14 years and to interact with it on a regular basis. We want this "branch" of Vine & Branches Christian Community to be a primarily quiet and contemplative one with a real, living connection to the rest of the Community in Lexington.

Full Post

I know not what lies ahead

Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

As I journey I find things of the past to be desirable. Not the ways and debauchery that were common but the ideas and philosophy that permeated my life. Not only my life but the life of those around me. There was an idea of brotherhood. A brotherhood that formed a type of filadelfia which was based around life and not the Life.

We journeyed together through all things. From high times to low times; through gain and loss; we journeyed this earth together. Laughing, crying, yelling and fighting we loved one another. That love even went beyond the side by side journey and dove into the realm of the physical protection of one another. The question Cain replied back to the Lord could be answered without doubt and need to hide a wrong. When in a new place your comfort could be found in those that were at your side and had your back.

The passage above reminds me of those times and deepens the desire for a true filadelfia between my brothers and sisters in Christ that beckons the philosophy of the pagan brotherhood. I have yet to truly find this as I journey with the Lord. I see glimpses of it but I tend to find only people of program. They speak but do not walk what they speak.

They have grandiose ideas and want to know what it is but not enough that they make it priority in their life. So as I read the verse and I find that the glory of the Lord will be my rear guard I take comfort in pushing forward. I know not what lies ahead but I know what is behind.

Isaiah 58