Monday, February 02, 2004
Ten Things That Drew Me to Orthodoxy:
10) Orthodoxy: A faith that one can be consumed by. Final Installment
This was perhaps the most intense, exciting and frightening time in my journey. Glory to God for Sara, this time would have been much more agonizing without her journeying along side me. When one of us was convinced, the other faced uncertainty, it was beautiful! The crux was that I was convinced spiritually that Orthodoxy was the best place to work out my salvation and sanctification. However, my head was filled with nagging doubts coming from many different sources. Friends, family and Anglican Clergy were all taking jabs at Orthodoxy. Not to mention the fact that my life long G.A.R.B. church-planting grandparents were already freaked out enough by Anglicanism. Was I taking my family to hell?
At the moment when I wanted to retreat back to the familiarity of Anglicanism, Orthodoxy’s onslaught did not let up with a penetrating liturgy, as we delved deeper we discovered an arsenal of weapons and tools prepared for a D-day-esque invasion. Saints and martyrs, askesis and ecstasy, Prayer ropes and the Jesus Prayer, fasting and feasting, birth and churching, baptism and chrismation, weddings and funerals, icon corners and house blessings, confession and penance, absolution and Eucharist. Orthodox Christianity shows up in every aspect of life and fills one at times to overwhelming levels. Not just Wednesday and Sunday, but truly all week, in your head, in your home, in your friends and your family, it is everywhere, and is therefore only to be had by those who would welcome such a consuming force.
What I had always longed for was now on my doorstep, and I had the bolt securely fastened. At this point Chesterton’s Orthodoxy was especially relevant, “People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum and safe.” Certainly, this was my defining of it as an Anglican. It wasn’t until Eastern Orthodoxy that I grasped more fully what he meant, “There was never anything so perilous or exciting as orthodoxy”. So, with the fear of God, with faith and love, I resolved to unbolt the door and allow the torrent to wash over me. I recall clearly one evening (still pre-Orthodoxy) in a moment of openness with Chance telling him, “You know Orthodoxy seems like a faith you could be consumed by, and that’s what I want, I want to be consumed!”
10) Orthodoxy: A faith that one can be consumed by. Final Installment
This was perhaps the most intense, exciting and frightening time in my journey. Glory to God for Sara, this time would have been much more agonizing without her journeying along side me. When one of us was convinced, the other faced uncertainty, it was beautiful! The crux was that I was convinced spiritually that Orthodoxy was the best place to work out my salvation and sanctification. However, my head was filled with nagging doubts coming from many different sources. Friends, family and Anglican Clergy were all taking jabs at Orthodoxy. Not to mention the fact that my life long G.A.R.B. church-planting grandparents were already freaked out enough by Anglicanism. Was I taking my family to hell?
At the moment when I wanted to retreat back to the familiarity of Anglicanism, Orthodoxy’s onslaught did not let up with a penetrating liturgy, as we delved deeper we discovered an arsenal of weapons and tools prepared for a D-day-esque invasion. Saints and martyrs, askesis and ecstasy, Prayer ropes and the Jesus Prayer, fasting and feasting, birth and churching, baptism and chrismation, weddings and funerals, icon corners and house blessings, confession and penance, absolution and Eucharist. Orthodox Christianity shows up in every aspect of life and fills one at times to overwhelming levels. Not just Wednesday and Sunday, but truly all week, in your head, in your home, in your friends and your family, it is everywhere, and is therefore only to be had by those who would welcome such a consuming force.
What I had always longed for was now on my doorstep, and I had the bolt securely fastened. At this point Chesterton’s Orthodoxy was especially relevant, “People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum and safe.” Certainly, this was my defining of it as an Anglican. It wasn’t until Eastern Orthodoxy that I grasped more fully what he meant, “There was never anything so perilous or exciting as orthodoxy”. So, with the fear of God, with faith and love, I resolved to unbolt the door and allow the torrent to wash over me. I recall clearly one evening (still pre-Orthodoxy) in a moment of openness with Chance telling him, “You know Orthodoxy seems like a faith you could be consumed by, and that’s what I want, I want to be consumed!”
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