What Are You Seeking?

Today, we are going to finish our discussion of St. Francis of Assisi's Peace Prayer. The last few posts have been spent looking at how it would look if we actually lived our lives they way he suggests in the first half of this prayer. What would it look like if we actually sowed things like love, pardon (forgiveness), faith, hope, light and joy into the world and the lives of those around us? We decided it would take looking like we're living life counter-culturally; living in a way that is not necessarily the norm for today's society.

Today we will look at the second half of the prayer. To me, the unasked question that is begged is, "What are you seeking?"

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive, 

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

As I read this, I think of what Paul wrote in Philippians, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." (Phil 2:3-4 NIV) It's this whole idea of putting others first. This approach can pretty well summarize Jesus' entire life - and purpose - on this earth. He put other's needs before His own. Right down to his act of giving up His life, so that we do not need to give up our own.

So, back to the question of what you're seeking? Is it your own understanding? Your own consolation? Are you seeking love, so that you feel it? Or do you take it as part of your purpose to help others with these things? Do you look to understand the position of others before you argue your points? Do you forgive others, before they forgive you?

In this time of leading up to Christmas, it's not uncommon to hear the expression that, "it is in giving that we receive." Do we really believe that though? Many people do, especially this time of year. Seeing the joy on someone's face when they open a Christmas gift is often more rewarding than the joy of opening the gift itself! If your skeptical of this fact, I would suggest you try going beyond your normal giving this year - not just in gifts to family and friends necessarily, but to your church or other charities - and see how it makes you feel. You'll be surprised at the joy and warmth you experience from giving beyond what's typical.

Finally, the prayer ends, I think appropriately, with the idea of dying to gain eternal life. At first it seems like he means actually dying - that when we physically die we began our eternal life in Heaven with God. After further thought though, I think it means that we have to "die to self" to be born into this eternal life. If you think about it, almost everything we've discussed about living counter-culturally could also be considered living "counter-fleshly". It is not our human nature, for example, to to love those we "should" hate or forgive those who have wronged us. But that's what dying to one's self really is - doing the the hard things that He would have us do, not what our fleshy selves want to do.

I close out this little series of posts with what my be an odd choice for a video. It is Christmas time, though, so I think it's especially appropriate. This song has always touched my heart, in some ways that I still don't understand. There is a specific verse toward the end though, that captures much of what we'be been discussing:

If you want to arrange it

This world, you can change it

If we could somehow

Make this Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor

Or even a stranger

To know who needs help,

You need only just ask...