The Annoyance of Spiritual Maturity and The Offense of Wise Words

The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence, Part 2
progress: completed

Although I appreciated and was challenged by Brother Lawrence's ideas about continuous living in the presence of God, I had to ask the question: Did people actually like being around this guy, or was he the teensiest bit annoying? As my husband Steve pointed out, the answer is perhaps not so telling as the question: why would I think that?

My first thought was that, in the flesh, he might exude an overpowering and obnoxious air of classic holier-than-thou, pontificating on his own spiritual prowess to the rest of us regular spiritual joes. How could you not feel condemned by this man's goodness and perfection? Ah - there! I have just exposed my faulty thinking: my feelings have given me away. It is my own sense of unholiness that is the issue here; it has little or nothing to do with this man's obvious holiness, except perhaps in that it awakens my own (human) tendency to compare. The honest answer, then, is that a very spiritually mature person such as Brother Lawrence makes me feel insecure in my own spirituality - he would be "annoying" to me because he was succeeding where I was failing. He would have the joy, peace, contentment, and radiance which I did not, and such characteristics would in fact highlight their absence in my own life.

Of course this was just my initial gut response - I'm being honest enough to admit it, embarrassing as it is. What I do with that response is what matters. Proverbs 23:9 warns, "Do not speak to a fool, for he will scorn the wisdom of your words." A fool will respond to one such as Brother Lawrence with offense at the suggestion or intimation that one can be holier than one currently is. She (or he) will find - or invent - reasons to discard the words of wisdom: It's too hard. It's not possible. It's not practical. He's annoying. I don't want to play the part of the fool, allowing my insecurities and sinfulness to cause me to scorn wisdom!

While taking the warning of Proverb 23:9 to heart, I can also take comfort in the promise of Proverbs 14:33, "Wisdom reposes in the heart of the discerning and even among fools she lets herself be known." There is hope for me yet! The wisdom reposing in me is this: Jesus' holiness and righteousness was perfect, and it offended people too. Too often I see in myself the Pharisee, so blinded by self-righteousness that I can hardly recognize the real thing. So, I have to honestly ask myself the question: Would Jesus have annoyed me too? I would like to think that he was so wonderfully mesmerizing, and charismatic, and full of authority and wisdom and compassion, and kindness-to-women that I would've just followed him around like a lovesick schoolgirl. I would like to think it would be easier to follow him if I knew him in the flesh. And yet I wonder. If I entered his world as I am today - a privileged, middle-class, seminary-educated woman, would I "need" him enough to consider his words? Or would I take offense at his presumption? I might have to keep asking myself these questions for a while, until each bit of spiritual pride, offense and hypocrisy is rounded up and exposed to the light of God's holiness.

Before I conclude this assortment of thoughts, I think it is only fair to quote from Joseph de Beaufort on the character of Brother Lawrence:

"He developed a gentle disposition, complete honesty, and the most charitable heart in the world. his kind face, his gracious and affable air, his simple and modest manner immediately won him the esteem and the good will of everyone who saw him... (83)

"Despite his simple and common life in the monastery, he did not pretend to be austere or melancholy, which only serves to rebuff people. On the contrary, he fraternized with everyone, and treated his brothers as friends, without trying to be distinguished from them. He never took the graces of God for granted, and never paraded his virtues in order to win esteem, trying rather to lead a hidden and unknown life. Though he was indeed a humble man, he never sought the glory of humility, but only its reality. He wanted no one but God to witness what he did, just as the only reward he expected was God himself." (84-85)

"Since loving God and loving one's neighbor are really the same thing, Brother Lawrence regarded those around him with the same affection he felt for the Lord." (93)

I would indeed be a fool to be offended by this man.

***   

            Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 
          All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
          Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

-Philippians 3:12-20

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