Greetings Glen Mar,

This week, we will talk about the wisdom we can find in the wilderness of Lent, and for that matter, life. While the Desert Mothers and Fathers did not often speak of wisdom directly, they alluded to it often as they sought after and taught on what a virtuous life in God should look like.

Abba Anthony the Great, for instance, said, “The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and to conform to the God of all. With this single aim in view, he disciplines his soul, and whatever he may encounter in the course of his life, he gives thanks to God for the compass and depth of His providential ordering of all things.” This is a hard word for those of us “going through something,” and yet, the challenge to obey and conform to God will lead to true inner transformation.

We don’t often like the idea of “obeying” and “conforming” in our modern Western Culture. In fact, the United States was formed around directly conflicting concepts of revolution and individualism. Still, throughout the Scriptures, God, the prophets, Jesus, the disciples, and followers of Christ call us to obedience and remind us that the goal of the Christian life is to conform to God’s image. Literally, to become like Christ!

So, what does this mean for us? Well, I think we all can recognize how the society and world around us are constantly calling us to “obey” and “conform” to its ways as well. We might not like to admit it, but we do this rather easily and without much thought. Think about fashion trends, for instance. How is it that fashion trends can exist if there wasn’t a sort of obedience and conforming to them? We see a celebrity, athlete, or influencer wearing the “thing,” and we decide that we, too, need that same thing! We are created to obey and conform to God, but too often we fall for the lesser things and make them the main thing to our detriment. After all, fashion never lasts, but the Word of God lasts forever.

The path to wisdom, true wisdom, is the way of Christ. The task is to build our house, our lives, on the foundation of his solid ground. He is the rock that we are to organize our lives around. He is the one we are to “obey” and “conform” our lives to. He is the true path to life; in fact, he is “The Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Let us remember this as we draw closer to God this week, and ultimately to the celebration of Easter.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Chris

This week’s Desert Father is Patrick of Ireland!