Last Spring I was walking in the wilderness from Egypt, up
thru Jordan and part of Israel with our SSU module. This morning we looked at an individual named
Antony who represents a tradition of people who sought God in the desert
wilderness in that area.
I have to confess that in March I found the geography very
appealing for its otherness and its solitude.
It would be easy to drop everything and wander off into the hills and
live a different kind of life. And then
I’d get hungry for a Mars bar and stop kidding myself. The life of Antony, as told to us by
Athanasius, is an intriguing look into a life desperate to shed the skin of
complacency and comfort for a life of danger, challenge and absolutely no Mars
bars.
His search for obscurity made him a strange kind of
celebrity. His pursuit of the presence
of God made him the target of demonic attention. His love of peace brought him into
significant conflict. His desire to be
along with God led to crowds seeking him out for advice, help and wisdom.
Athanasius wrote of Antony, “It was as if he were a
physician given to Egypt by God. For who
went to him grieving and did not return rejoicing? Who went in lamentation over his dead, and
did not immediately put aside his sorrow?
Who visited while angered and was not changed to affection? What poor person met him n exhaustion who did
not, after hearing and seeing him, despise wealth and console himself in hi
poverty?...And who came to him distressed in his thoughts and did not find his
mind calmed?”[1]
As a pastor in an urban setting I want to set my heart on
being a vessel for the same Spirit of God in the same measure that Antony
was. I want a transformational empathy
to emanate from my life as it did Antony’s.
I want power to find a clean conduit in my life to lead others to
experience the providence of God. I want
to want Jesus more than I want a Mars bar or comfort or cable or a retirement
package or a smart phone or recognition.
Let Jesus alone be my main and my dessert in whatever desert I find
myself.
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