Review of "The Seeking Heart"

Francois Fenelon was a French Catholic archbishop who lived in the late 17th century. Why would you read something from such a person? Because he lived a life of profound intimacy with God and his writings glow with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

This simple little book should be read as a daily devotional. More than once, his words have leapt off the page to hit me between the eyes. I found him especially helpful last fall, when we were going through all of the controversies and pains of a divided congregation and our battles with the presbytery. All the anger, hostility and falsehoods aimed at me (even if it was from a small number of people) could have been debilitating. Instead, Fenelon helped me to see God at work through the pain to kill off in me everything that is not God.

When I read him, I only read in very small amounts and very slowly. It is just too rich to take in large bites. Perhaps the best thing to do is simply give you the first day's reading:

Embracing the Cross

You need to learn to separate yourself from unnecessary and restless thoughts which grow out of self-love. When your own thoughts are set aside you will be completely in the middle of the straight and narrow path. You will experience the freedom and peace that is meant for you as a child of God.

I try to follow the same advice that I give others. I know that I must seek peace in the same way. Often, when you suffer, it is the life of your self-nature that causes you pain. When you are dead you do not suffer. If you were completely dead to your old nature you would no longer feel many of the pains that now bother you.

Endure the aches and pains of your body with patience. Do the same thing with your spiritual afflictions (that is, trouble sent to you that you cannot control). Do not add to the cross in your life by becoming so busy that you have no time to sit quietly before God. Do not resist what God brings into your life. Be willing to suffer if that is what is needed. Overactivity and stubbornness will only increase your anguish.

God prepares a cross for you that you must embrace without thought of self-preservation. The cross is painful. Accept the cross and you will find peace even in the midst of turmoil. Let me warn you that if you push the cross away, your circumstances will become twice as hard to bear. In the long run, the pain of resisting the cross is harder to live with than the cross itself.

See God's hand in the circumstances of your life. Do you want to experience true happiness? Submit yourself peacefully and simply to the will of God, and bear your sufferings without struggle. Nothing so shortens and soothes your pain as the spirit of non-resistance to your Lord.

As wonderful as this sounds, it still may not stop you from bargaining with God. The hardest thing about suffering is not knowing how great it will be or how long it will last. You will be tempted to want to impose some limits to your suffering. No doubt you will want to control the intensity of the pain.

Do you see the stubborn and hidden hold you have over your life? This control makes the cross necessasry in the first place. Do not reject the full work that the power of the cross could accomplish in you. Unfortunately, you will be forced to go over the same ground again and again. Worse yet, you will suffer much, but your suffering will be for no purpose.

May the Lord deliver you from falling into an inner state in which the cross is not at work in you! God loves a cheerful giver. (II Corinthians 9: 7) Imagine how much He must love those who abandon themselves to His will cheerfully and completely - even if it results in crucifixion!