Friday, October 5, 2012

Be rocks

All the unpleasant things which are within your soul and cause you anxiety can become occasions for the glorification of God and cease to torment you. Have trust in God. Then you will forget your worries and become His instruments. Distress shows that we are not entrusting our life to Christ. Doesn’t St. Paul say, ‘We are afflicted on every side, but not distressed?’

Deal with everything with love, kindness, meekness, patience and humility. Be rocks. Let all the waves break over you and turn back leaving you untroubled. You’ll say, ‘That sounds fine, but is it possible?’ The answer is ‘Yes, always—with the grace of God.’ If we look at things in human terms, of course, it is impossible. But instead of affecting you adversely, all these things can be of benefit to you, increasing your patience and your faith. Because all the difficulties that surround us represent a kind of gymnastics for us. We exercise ourselves in patience and endurance.

Elder Porphyrios,Wounded by Love, page 145
“Remember who your teachers were…”
2 Timothy 3:14
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous8/10/12 09:35

    I think anyone can be a rock of faith, at any time and in any place. I have never been a rock, but that is because I allowed venomous people to weaken me. To be a rock would be a new mode for me—that is, to understand the empowerment and stability of a rock of faith. This is not contrary to humility. It is just that, generally, rocks are substantial and everlasting—which certainly does not rule out humility. Rocks can withstand the desert sun, the ocean waves, and snow storms—precisely because they are both strong and lowly. As I started to say, I am not accustomed to any level of trust or confidence in what I know or how I feel, because there is always someone there to tear me down or instill doubt. I have believed in God since childhood, but I journeyed through life as a seeker—never quite satisfied with religious maxims or sure of even basic catechisms. So, it never occurred to me that I could be a rock, if only for my own mental stability and spiritual clarity.

    I am just beginning to see that my struggles and sufferings, my questions and research, my prayers and worship are now gaining consolidation. I do not mean that I will not continue to learn, but only that I am less likely to be shaken by self-serving people in the world and by misguided people in religions. This is the culmination of a lifetime, the mixing and blending of deposits, the scraping away of non-truths and hatred, and the grace of God who can make water flow from a rock.

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