the importance of being foolish (III)

Chapter Three: Diversions

In this chapter Brennan Manning looks at three desires that stifle movement towards Christlike transparency: the desires for security, pleasure, and power.

Security

"In trembling insecurity, the believer pleads for and even demands tangible reassurances from the Lord that his affection is returned. If he does not receive them, he is disheartened, frustrated, maybe even convinced that it's all over or that it never really existed. If he does receive them, he is reassured, but only for a time. He presses for further proofs--each one less convincing than the one that went before. In the end this false trust dies of pure frustration."

"Peace and joy go a-begging when the heart of a Christian longs for one sign after another of God's merciful love. Nothing is taken for granted and nothing is received with gratitude. The troubled eyes and furrowed brow of the anxious believer are the symptoms of a heart where trust has not found a home."

"Insecurity not only paralyzes our relationship with the living God but has a devastating effect on interpersonal relationships. It is the starting point of all social estrangement. It breaks down openness, which is the bridge to the existential world of the other. It undermines real communication and causes a kind of rupture in the evolution of authentic personality."

"The church of Jesus Christ is a place of promise and possibility, of adventure and discovery, a community of love on the move, strangers and exiles in a foreign land en route to the heavenly Jerusalem. But the security seekers are the enemies of openness."

"Living dependent on 'security' defeats carefree trust in God's wisdom and love, hurts interpersonal relationships, thwarts ongoing community renewal and Christian reunion, and handicaps the serious Christian who seeks to have the mind of Christ Jesus."

Pleasure

"When forms of pleasure, leisure, and recreation refresh mind and body and revitalize the spirit, they bring a sense of balance, rest, and wholeness. But sought after for themselves, they send us on a roller-coaster ride during which each sensation must be greater than the last one for the thrill to continue."

"[Many] Christians practice an ambivalent 'prudence of the flesh' that seeks a sort of gilded mediocrity: the self is carefully distributed between flesh and spirit, with a watchful eye on both. Paul calls this 'imperfect spiritual vision.' It is the vision of those who have received the Spirit but remain spiritual infants because they do not subject themselves fully to the domination of the Spirit; they yield to their passions, thus letting their drives confine them to an infantile spirituality. Paul compares them to babies unable to take food."

Manning quotes Jean Mouroux: "The perfect Christian is he who does not normally yield to the demands of the flesh, and who is normally docile to the impulses of the Spirit."

"We Christians are as prone to chemical dependency, affairs, self-serving friendships, and risky behavior as those who don't claim to hold Christ in their hearts. We seek and search for ways to fill up the gaping hole in our lives, yet come away from these experiences with little more than a temporary sense of completion."

Power

"[The] quest for power is not limited to material gains or the drive to rule a personal empire. The pull of power is the force behind the desire to acquire knowledge as a means of achieving recognition as an 'interesting' person."

"[Still] we persist in our efforts to contradict God, crazily choosing death over life, stasis over dynamism, domination over submission, power over surrender. But God refuses to let us have the last word in anything. And that is God's prerogative."

"Life driven by our desire for security, pleasure, and power dims the Light within us and introduces unnecessary mental and emotional sufferings, which are misconstrued as spiritual trials or the inevitable growth pains of the Spirit. This is erroneous discernment."

"The anxious striving for security, the vehement pursuit of physical and spiritual pleasure, and the desperate bid for power banish peace and joy, serenity and self-possession, gentleness, patience, and the other fruits of the Spirit. The gospel of Jesus Christ promises no relief, deliverance, or fulfillment for these self-inflicted maladies apart from full submission to the mind of Christ. They must be surgically uprooted in their very center, and the power to perform the operation is ours. It is not the stuff of circumstances that steals our Promethean fire but our incessant addictions, needs, and desires."