At the end of the third century in the deserts of Egypt, North Africa, an extraordinary phenomenon occurred. Christian men and women began to flee the cities and villages of the Nile Delta in Egypt to seek God in the desert. They discerned that so much of the world filled the church that they had to pursue God in a radical way by moving to the desert. They saw the world:
as a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life. . . . These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster. . . They knew they were helpless to do any good for others as long as they floundered about in the wreckage. But once they got a foothold on solid ground, things were different. Then they had not only the power but even the obligation to pull the whole world to safety after them. (Merton – Wisdom of the Desert)
I have pondered these Sayings of the Desert Fathers/Mothers for more than 15 years. In this podcast, I talk about what I believe is their contribution and gift for us today – both in our leadership and in our discipling of others. The following are 3 of their sayings that I touch on in this podcast:
- In Scetis a brother went to Moses to ask for advice. He said to him, “Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.”
- One day Abba Anthony received a letter from the Emperor Constantius, asking him to come to Constantinople and he wondered whether he ought to go. So he said to Abba Paul, his disciple, “Ought I to go?” He replied, “if you go, you will be called Anthony; but if you stay here, you will be called Abba Anthony.”
- A brother came to see Abba Theodore and spent 3 days begging him to say a word to him without getting any reply. So he went away grieved. “Then the old man’s disciple said to him, “Abba, why did you not say a word to him? See, he has gone away grieved.” The old man said to him, “I did not speak to him, for he is a trafficker who seeks to glorify himself thru the words of others.”
If we are going to shape the culture of our churches towards a slowed down, deep spirituality in Jesus, it must begin with us. Enjoy!
Blessings,
Pete
Immature, shallow people don’t change the world for Jesus. Only mature disciples do.
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