HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
Following are brief reflections on the lives of three Christian leaders related to fully embracing the Lord. The first is from the fourth century, the second from the twelfth century, and the third is a present day Christian scholar.
Swan and Syncletica: Embracing the Lord in Repentance
The “desert mothers” of the past were often forgotten women, yet they were leaders of Christian spirituality in the early centuries of Christianity. Laura Swan has developed extensive research on these women and provides important insights from their lives related to fully embracing the Lord.
For example, an important aspect of repentance in embracing the feet of the Lord can involve the spiritual discipline of fasting. Laura quotes Amma Syncletica (380-460 AD) who says, “Just as the most bitter medicine drives out poison . . . so prayer joined to fasting drives evil thoughts away.”[1] The area of fasting may have particular relevance to World Vision, especially where fasting can strengthen the overall health and maturity of staff. The demands of ministry to the poor often cause great stress due to over work and can also create excessive strain on staff marriages. Sometimes there are unique temptations regarding the use of money in rural communities, and questions arise on how to properly use power. Further, there can be times of despondency among staff seeking to address root causes of poverty, especially when there is little progress under seemingly hopeless circumstances.
Fasting can be one important way of intentionally creating more “space for God” to teach, grow, and free people who desire to remain centered on Christ while serving the poor. Laura Swan provides some helpful guidance on how fasting can reduce these pressures and temptations. She writes:
Fasting may take the form of giving up something other than food, such as excessive commitments, overachieving, unhealthy attitudes, and old resentments. The desert ascetics began by fasting from food, possessions, and social relationships. Then they progressed to fasting from interior attachments, such as anger, jealousy, envy, or possessiveness. The desert ascetics understood that fasting creates the space for our bodies, minds, and spirits for God to be with us, for new things to grow.[2]
Swan also states that overindulgence of one or more areas of life can be a “sign that we seek to replace God with something else.”[3] Consideration of fasting in various ways as suggested above could help World Vision staff determine whether there are things in individual or corporate life that tend to replace God. Such fasting could result in more freedom in Christ as his followers discover that external things are not as necessary or important as once believed.
[1] Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press), 44.
[2] Ibid., 45.
[3] Ibid.
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