a little too circumspect?

St Ephrem the Syrian gives us some very circumspect advice today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He tells us not to get caught up in the things of this world, but to set our sights on eternity. And he said that Job and Abraham and Daniel and some other OT folks, when faced with temptations, overcame them and were blessed by it. And all of these things are true.

We should definitely prepare ourselves for when suffering comes, and be ready to allow it to make us better people. To be transformed by it, as it renews our minds, and makes us more like Him.

But, we shouldn't go looking for suffering. There is a story of a monk who would pass a beautiful lake on his walk each day, and he would refrain from looking at it as a form of penance. He denied himself the beauty of that view for the sake of becoming more holy.

That reminds me of the picture above. I think it's possible to become so focused on our own holiness that we lose sight of what it's all about. We forget that we've been made free. That it was for freedom that we were set free, and that all things are permissable to us, even though not all things are beneficial. God gave us our lives to live them, and to enjoy the sights and sounds and tastes and smells and feelings that He gave us senses to experience them with.

So it's important not to lose sight either way. Not to become so enthralled with our own holiness that we forget to live. And not to become so enamored with the beauty of the world that we forget we don't belong here forever.

God, please help us find the balance between living in the world, but not of it.