Spiritual maturity: we have a good god

The second "conversation" (chapter) in Winn Collier's exceptional little book 'Let God: Spiritual Conversations with Francois Fenelon' is titled "How Do I Pursue Spiritual Maturity?" Or, as Winn says, "How do we grow up?"

On p.21 are these gems he has translated from Fenelon's work:

• "With all the mental energy we exert, we can spend so much of our life hoarding knowledge that we will need another whole life to try to actually live any of it. We face the very real danger of thinking that our accumulation of 'spiritual' knowledge is the indicator of our spiritual development. Not true."
• "We love the learning, the knowledge, the illumination of ideas, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. But unfortunately, we do not love simply trusting, simply obeying, simply living." (Ouch - in a good way)
• "If you just stop all the wrestling and resisting and harried effort, you will find yourself on your way to becoming who God has in mind for you to be."
• "...these are the virtues you really need: humility and self-distrust."

 Hmm... yeah... That's something worth chewing on. For me, personally, I think that's why I've always liked to read through books slowly. It is also why I have lately been leaning towards buying fewer 'new' books, and re-reading more books I've already read in the past that I found helpful. It would be nice to say I won't buy anymore books... but I know that's probably never going to happen... 

In his letter "To a Spiritually Exhausted Soul"... I liked this bit of encouragement from Fenelon (again, as translated by Collier): "...there is something very rich and pure about simply not giving up, particularly when there is little pleasure in your Christian experience."

He goes on that... if it still seems too hard... then make it even simpler: "just love God." Whatever else you need to do "will grow from the soil of love."

I like that.

The kicker in this section, to me, was this little bit:

When St. Ambrose was dying, someone asked him if he was afraid of God's judgments. "We have a good master," Ambrose said. This is what we need to tell ourselves: we need not fear death; we have a good God.

He carries on this thought...

Saint Augustine said that we need to be emptied of all we have tried to make of ourselves. That way, when we stand before God after death we have only two things to give him: our utter brokenness and God's rich mercy. This is a brilliant way to arrive before God, because our brokenness is the very spot where he longs to pour his mercy -- lots of it. And this overflowing mercy is the only thing that can ever make us (in any true sense) good.

 

Yeah... So, maybe: spiritual maturity is all about coming to realize... the goodness of God.

Hmm... 

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• Introduction
• First Conversation