Tolstoy’s Three Questions – Reflections (7)

  

Let’s read the king’s questions and the hermit’s answers once again. Did the Hermit answer all the questions?

 

“It once occurred to a certain king, that if he always knew the right time to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what was the most important thing to do, he would never fail in anything he might undertake.”

 

 

“Remember then: there is only one time that is important— Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!”

 

The hermit did not tell the king whom to avoid.  How might we think about this question?

 

There are times we are with people, or have the opportunity to be with people, who we either ought to avoid or at least be careful with. Yes, we ought to endeavor to serve all men, to do good to all men, to share Jesus with all men (Mt. 5:43 – 48; Gal. 6:10), but there are times when we need to be careful lest we drink from cups of poison for our souls.  Jesus counsels us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

 

“Do not associate with a man given to anger; or go with a hot – tempered man, or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself” (Proverbs 22:24 – 25; please also see James 3:13 – 18 and Psalm 1).

 

In a society fueled by anger and fear and anxiety, do we endeavor to respond to Christ’s calling to be peacemakers (Mt. 5:9)? Do we keep in mind James’s distinction between demonic wisdom and the gentleness of godly wisdom? Are we careful not to align ourselves with people and movements whose spirit is contrary to the Spirit of the Lamb who gives His life all the people of the earth?  

 

Psalm 1 (which ought to be our Way of Life in Christ, for Jesus is “the Way of the Righteous” (Ps. 1:6), warns us that we ought not to “walk in the counsel of the wicked…nor sit in the seat of scoffers.” Scoffing and sarcasm and vitriol, poison our souls, and when we associate with people who promote this way of life that is contrary to Jesus, it will affect us. This includes “electronic and social media association,” that which our eyes and ears invite into our temples.

 

We ought to avoid such people.

 

On the other side of the spectrum are those who seek to seduce us as “apostles of Christ and angels of light” (2 Cor. 11:13 – 14). These people want us to feel good, to think positive thoughts, to get better and better, to never make a judgment call about sin or righteousness, and above all else, they want us to avoid the Cross.

 

These folks are every bit as dangerous as the angry people because their teaching is so positive and non-threatening, they are like Peter telling Jesus that He ought not to go to the Cross (Matthew 16:21 – 23).

 

I once lived in a city in which there was an annual event at the convention center featuring a traveling group of positive-thinking speakers, some of whom were professing Christians. I always cringed when this group came to town because friends and acquaintances would get excited about the event, attend, and invite others. These men and women were very good speakers, they were witty, they were funny, and they had good moral and ethical and motivational stories and lessons. However, what they were presenting was not the Gospel, it was cotton candy coated with Christian jargon and allusion. I have seen this phenomenon many times in many places throughout the years. The idea seems to be that if it has Christian overtones, or if it has an overt Christian tag, and if it feels good and is motivational, then it must be Biblical.

 

This is dangerous, anything that is not centered in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is dangerous – for in Christ alone is our source of Light and Life, in the Cross alone is our hope and our Way of Life.  

 

The Scriptures teach us that our minds are renewed as we present ourselves to God as living and holy sacrifices, not as we seek self-preservation or pursue a form of positive thinking (Rom. 12:1 – 2).

 

Consider Paul’s words to the Philippians, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

 

If we didn’t know any better we’d think Paul was preaching positive thinking, but since we do know better we recognize that the context of his exhortation is the Christ of the Cross, for in 3:3 he writes that we worship God in Spirit, glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. In 3:10 he writes of knowing Christ in the koinonia of His sufferings. The theme of Philippians can be expressed as joyfully knowing Jesus Christ as we share in His sufferings for His glory and the blessing of others.

 

Our thought lives are to glorify God and be a blessing to others, not to make us feel better for the sake of feeling better.

 

Perhaps another way of putting the above, is that we look for Jesus Christ, always Jesus Christ and His Cross. We focus on Him and on others knowing Him. We avoid those who are not centered in the Cross, on the Cross, and living through the Cross.

 

As Paul wrote, “May it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).

 

Can you think of other people and ways of thinking that ought to be avoided?

Tolstoy’s Three Questions – Reflections (6)

 

 

In thinking about the king’s question, “Who is the right person to listen to?” we’ve considered the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and trusted men and women who have been given wisdom.

 

The hermit’s answer was, “The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else.”

 

How might we understand the Hermit’s answer? Certainly, what people tell us is not always true or righteous or good, so we must not accept everything we listen to, and yet how might we understand “the most necessary man is he with whom you are”? What about the thought that “no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else”?

 

There are few lines in the prayer, Morning Dedication, in the Valley of Vision (page 221) that may help us with this:

 

Order this day all my communications according to thy wisdom, and to the gain of mutual good. Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable. May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one. If my life should end today, let this be my best day.

 

Every interaction with others matters, every encounter with another person is important. I believe this because I cannot envision Jesus meeting someone, speaking to someone, hearing someone, and thinking that the person is not important. Since Jesus sends us as the Father sends Him, I believe we are to be His Presence in all of our interactions with others, just as Jesus was the Father’s Presence in the Incarnation.

 

This means, among other things, that the hermit has a point when he says, “the most necessary man is he with whom you are.” We will never meet a person who does not have the image of God; granted the image can be hidden, defaced, desecrated, and even intentionally mutilated, but nevertheless, the image of God is there, somewhere, somehow.

 

A few months ago I did a series of reflections on Theo of Golden. One of the beauties of Theo is that all faces matter, all people matter, whatever their size or shape or background or the present condition of their lives, they all matter. Theo could look into the eyes of a portrait and see the soul.

 

But…we must pay attention to others if we are to begin to “see” others. Paying attention means listening and watching, watching the eyes, the face, the body language. I don’t want to pass anyone and not pay attention to them, I know that I do miss people, but I don’t want to. We can speak to others as we are able, and we can always pray for others, yes, we can always pray. I have learned to look for opportunities to speak to others, to share Jesus with others, to pray with others, to pray for others. I don’t always get it “right,” I don’t always recognize the opportunities, I can be so very self-centered at times, so intent on my own agenda, that I miss others, I miss the faces.

 

I do really want to get it right, at least I think I do.

 

The hermit says, “no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else.” There is a date on a calendar which is our last day of this life, this pilgrimage. On this particular date, whether it is today or tomorrow or many years from now, there is also an appointment for us to keep, and for sure we will keep it. The appointment is with the last person we will ever be with, the last person we will ever speak to, the last person who will ever speak to us.

 

What will that appointment look like?

 

Will we be attentive listeners? Will we be encouraging to that person? Will we look upon that man or woman or child as Jesus looks upon him or her? Will that person be glad that he or she met us and that they were with us?

 

What a tragedy to leave this earth in a moment of rudeness, or hatred, or vitriol, or selfishness! What a tragedy to leave as a taker and not a giver.

 

What would life look like if we desired to be a blessing to all who we meet? If we would “speak each word as if my last word”? If all of our actions were done in the awareness that they might be the final thing we did in our lives?

 

What would our lives look like if we lived each day so that it would be our “best day”?

 

We are to be a neighbor to all, to love others, and to remember that “The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

 

We never really just meet one person, for there is always another Person with the two of us, always Another. To know Jesus, is to know Him as we love others, serve others, pray for others, be available for others, listen to others. Jesus comes to us again and again as we live in the light of the hermit’s answer that, “The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else.”

 

Will we live in the light of this knowledge today?

Tolstoy’s Three Questions – Reflections (5)

 

 In thinking about the king’s question, “Who is the right person to listen to?” we’re considering the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and trusted men and women who have been given wisdom.

 

“Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 11:14; see also 15:22, 24:6).

 

There are different textures and genres of wisdom, understanding, and counsel that we need throughout life. Sometimes what we need is intensely practical in nature (how to do something), sometimes it is ethical, moral, and spiritual in nature. It can often be both.

 

Seeking and receiving counsel is not a substitute for making our own decisions and being responsible for them. A wise counsellor will not make decisions for us.  We have all probably known people who perpetually seek counsel for two reasons, one is that they want someone else to tell them what to do (and thereby abdicate responsibility), the other is that they want someone to tell them what they’ve already decided they are going to do.

 

For the follower of Jesus, wise counsel must include the Cross, for we must not look for the easy way out, we must look for Jesus, for the Christ of the Cross. The default posture of most of the world is self-preservation, our default posture is to be loving God and others – no matter what the results and consequences to ourselves. If we follow the Lamb, we can trust the Lamb. Yes?

 

Let’s recall that Peter’s counsel to Jesus was to avoid the Cross. Where would we be now if Jesus had listened to Peter? Where would Peter be now?

 

My sense is that wise counsel is not so much about dealing with specific situations, though it certainly can be, but is more about growing into the image of Christ as our Way of Life. In other words, if we learn the way of wisdom as our way of life, then wisdom and understanding will permeate our lives, they will become natural to us in Christ. We learn “not to lean on our own understanding” but rather to trust in God and acknowledge Him in all of life (Pro. 3:5 – 6).

 

Learning the Way of Wisdom is knowing Jesus (Proverbs 8, 1 Cor. 1:30 – 31; Col. 2:3). While it is vital that we know Jesus personally, it is also vital that we know Jesus as members of His Body; we really can’t have one without the other, for we are members of one another in Him.  I am, of course, speaking of relationships within the Body, koinonia, not simply membership in a congregation and not simply church attendance.

 

Wise counsellors can take many forms. They can be men and women we know (and we need these for many reasons, not the least of which is to keep us honest, what we may call “accountability”.) They may also be those we have never met but who are living today and speak to us through writing and public ministry. They may also be those who have lived before us and continue to speak to us through their writing.

 

I think we need all three.

 

There is so much that could be written about who we should listen to, but this is a blog and not War and Peace, so I’ll close for now.