William Wilberforce is best known as leading the charge to end slavery. He served in the government of England as a member to Parliament, starting in 1783. In 1797, he wrote A Practical View of Real Christianity. The following quotes and excerpts come from a recent modernization of the text, completed in 2006 by Dr. Bob Beltz. For part one, please click here. For part two, click here.
Ever struggle to walk a tightrope between doing everything you can to accomplish your dreams and staying grounded in making your actions come from a devotion to God? Worse, for myself, I like to think that all of my dreams are indeed ideas that I got from God to begin with, so I want to think that pursuing them with passion is always the right thing.
Yet, sometimes, that passionate pursuit can really lose focus. You can begin to find yourself trampling on others. People can get hurt, relationships lost, as you go as hard as you can for success.
Or, sometimes, the danger lies in the fact that as you pursue, you get the praise of humans, and then we start to enjoy that so much, that everything we do is ONLY to get the praise of humans, no matter the cost. Wilberforce spoke about this issue, which he admits is a struggle that he also has to deal with. Take a good read here. I know well this issue of a passionate pursuit becoming, suddenly, a burden or a frustration. When I first read his words, I actually stopped reading and started answering the questions that he posed. It was a useful endeavor.
This is the tightrope we walk. On the one hand, we want our lives to be productive and effective; on the other hand, we don’t want to lose spiritual focus that is as the heart of our faith. What do you do when you sense you are losing your focus and slipping into action without passion? Are you getting too enmeshed and consumed with the affairs of the world? Or, are you too engaged in pursuing some worldly object? First, you need to stop and take inventory. Take an honest look at the state of your heart and the situation you find yourself in. Ask God to show you the true state of things. If you find that in fact you are pursuing wealth or reputation and that your mind tends to be always occupied with such things, and if you find that success in attaining them gives great joy while disappointments in their acquisition distresses you, then you have a problem! Your heart has been captured.
When this happens, it is important to look at what you are trying to accomplish or acquire. Are you after the wrong things? Because it is so easy to get caught in self-deception, check this with a few close friends. IF you are unwilling to do this, it should be a signal that something is wrong. When you become aware of this, begin to distrust yourself. You will begin to look for all kinds of justifications to defend what you are doing. AS you do, you will also find that your passion and valuation of the things of God will diminish.
When you find no fault in your conduct, yet have a sense that something is wrong, you need to stand back and take a look at the bigger picture. Is there some area of your life that is out conformity with what you know God wants? Have you been negligent of the spiritual disciplines of prayer and reading the Bible? Have your times of devotion been irregular or infrequent? Do you find such times being constantly interrupted? Have you fallen prey to the erroneous idea that you are too busy to give adequate time to these exercises, forgetting that the neglect of them usually results in less effective work time, while the exercise of them makes us more productive in the long run?
When taking stock, ask if the objects or achievements you are striving for are truly the things you believe God has called you to accomplish. If you believer they are, consider whether you might be giving them more time than they really requires so that you lose the time you need to take care of your spiritual needs.
If, after careful examination, you reach the conclusion that you are on a proper course in both the object and energy of your activities, at least try to pursue them without giving as much of your heart to them as you have been giving. Attempt to practice the presence of God in the midst of the execution of the task at hand. This will give the enterprise a more spiritual tone.
Above all, guard against the temptation to conform your mind to the level that would justify your behavior. Keep your standards high! Recognize that without God’s help, you won’t be able to achieve them. Such awareness keeps us in the place where we need to pray consistently. It also helps create a healthy level of humility that is so necessary to reflect the character of Christ. (pp. 103-105)