Blessed is the Kingdom

Seeking The Kingdom In All Things

No One’s Got It Sorted

This morning I was happy to welcome home a couple from St. Thomas who have recently returned from a trip to Ireland.  One of the stories from the trip centered around words of wisdom exchanged over a pint in an Irish pub. They described to me a person they met in the pub who had been on a personal quest for meaning that took them, like so many before, to the far east in search of wisdom and getting life back into some sort of order. Their pub companion shared a conversation that he had with a Buddhist monk who put things to them simply. The monk explained that after years of prayer and meditation, separated from the world, he still did not have things sorted out. “No one’s got it sorted,” he explained.

How many of us are kept up at night, worried about having to get our lives completely together and in order? It’s pretty easy to look around and think that every person around us has life completely under control, that everything is sorted out splendidly. I think that this is especially true in churches. Many times we labor under the illusion that in order to be a good Christian, we have to first have things figured out, that in order to be a good Christian, we must first be perfect and only then can we be worthy to enter the doors of the church. Since no one’s got it sorted, as our Buddhist friend put it, we often put on an act that we in fact do have everything figured out, that there are no questions, no doubts, no serious sins or temptations to be wrestled with.

True spiritual growth starts when we realize that no one’s got it sorted, even those who outwardly appear to have everything in order. Our real path to conversion begins when we realize that every person who professes the Christian faith is fighting a daily battle with sin. Some of us, with the help of God, are winning that battle and some are struggling just to keep our heads above water. The key to a successful Christian life, I believe, is not achieving perfection, but rather perfect trust in God’s power to save us.

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This entry was posted by on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Fr. Christian is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City, TN.

Comments

  • http://www.fromthepulpitofmylife.blogspot.com/ Ruth Ann

    Yes, we are all struggling, Fr. Mathis. And, as you say, we daily place our trust in God and His mercy.

  • http://www.emahlou.blogspot.com elizabeth mahlou

    Actually, it is a very good feeling to know that it is not necessary for us to be perfect, that we don’t have to “earn” God’s love; He just gives it to us. I don’t think I would know what to do if my life were sorted. I have long ago accepted the “mess” as a great learning experience.

  • http://myletterstoemily.blogspot.com lea helmerich

    thank you for such a timely and wise message. the ‘sorting’
    is part of the fun. the trusting is the hard part. :)

    blessings,
    lea

  • Mark G.

    About as much fun as trying to get through a minefield without being blown to pieces. Still, I take your point about trusting to make it to the other side. I often fall back to relying on my own feeble power to accomplish the mission.

    Having spent a great deal of time over the past year in China, I’d say the difference the Buddhist & the Christian approaches to “sorting it out” cannot be over-emphasized.

    The Christian can acknowledge his sins while standing before & embracing in hope the Triune God who loves him more than he can love himself. Falling for a Christian can actually make one spiritually stronger through God’s forgiveness & sacramental grace. And all the while, he perseveres in hope.

    The Buddhist would see his sins as failure to purify himself of worldly attachments, the things that keep him in the cycle of reincarnation & prevents him from attaining to Nirvana, that is, total dissolution & annihilation. He only has his own efforts upon which to rely, with perhaps only the help of his spiritual guides.

    No wonder he didn’t find the answers: the Buddhist seems to have no answers to find, because Buddhism would seem to have no answers to give.

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