From Deadly Thoughts to Godly Virtues

We're at Monk's today, a local Abilene coffee shop, where Ben is working on a 3 1/2 hour take-home test for his Restoration History class, and I'm enjoying a latte and some quiet reading and reflection. Right now, I'm reading a book that's called Longing for God, by Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe. I've just started the book, but there have been parts that have struck me as significant, so I thought I'd share some today.

You've heard of the 7 deadly sins, right? Well, before Gregory the Great (540-604) compiled that list, Evagrius of Ponticus (345-399) identified 8 deadly thoughts (later to be compressed into the 7 deadly sins). The 8 deadly thoughts are the various challenges we confront as we develop our life with God. They are:

• Gluttony--insatiable desire to take things in, to consume and to attempt to satisfy desire through gorging.
  
• Anger--arises from a sense of violation of self, of agreements, of principles; arises when we feel a threat to our social status or when we desire to control other people's lives.
  
• Greed--grasping for money or fame; seeks to fill others' minds with ourselves, and leads to a lack of respect for the needs of others, because our own needs overrun all normal boundaries and limits.
  
• Envy--feeling inadequate about our own gifts and abilities and begin to resent the gifts and abilities of others; motivated by a fear of losing our place.
  
• Pride--a disproportionate sense of our own contributions manifesting in an inordinate belief in our own importance. Like envy, it's unable to recognize the contributions of others because this very recognition threatens the view we want to hold of ourselves.
  
• Lust or impurity--results from egocentrism, and that the other exists only to satisfy our desires.
  
• Indifference or impatient discouragement--result of believing that the daily affairs of life, and the way we spend our life, don't matter.
  
• Melancholy or depression--arise from the belief that our very existence does not matter. (58-61)
  

Evagrius believed that these thoughts disorient us and do not allow us to completely know and purely contemplate God (the highest form of knowing God) as we strive to develop our life with Him. So, we "overcome the disorientation of the eight deadly thoughts only through the orienting effects of the eight godly virtues, which correspond directly to the deadly thoughts":

• Temperance (overcomes gluttony)--recognizes that there will always be more to come and that God will provide.
  
• Mildness (overcomes anger)--When we are "violated", we find that God totally satisfies our need to be valued and recognized, so we respond with self-restraint and confidence in God.
  
• Generosity (overcomes greed)--recognizes that our greatest good is found in sharing with others in community.
  
• Happiness (overcomes envy)--arises from a celebration of ours own competencies as well as celeration of the skills of others. It's possible only when our egocentrism is controlled and our ability to be other-centered is fully developed.
  
• Humility (overcomes pride)--allows us to see our role in the greater purposes of God's design without feeling threatened by the achivements of others.
  
• Chastity (overcomes lust and impurity)--works to properly balance love with the capacity to be loved.
  
• Diligence (overcomes indifference and impatient discouragement)--believing that the ultimate purpose of our life rests in the hands of God; maintaining confidence in the providence of God even when there is no immediate evidence to justify such confidence.
  
• Wisdom (overcomes melancholy and depression)--the ability to recognize the role our life plays in the greater affairs of the world; contentment with our individual contribution and recognizing that our priorities will affect the next generation and beyond; ability to enjoy our legacy without feeling we must tidy it up before we are gone. (58-61)
  

The contrast between a few of these pairs and their definitions was striking at times, and resonated with me. For example, "Gluttony" overcome by "temperance." What is gluttony? I guess I (and most people) usually associate this word with food... but the authors of this book suggest that the root of gluttony may actually be distrust that there will always be more to come and that God will provide. "Trusting and depending on God allows us to believe that our future needs will be met and that we do not need to hoard now, so long as we follow God" (58). My longing to trust in God and my own self-reliance are at war most of the time, especially when it comes to money and how much to save for the future. I can be an obsessive bank account checker. But the virtue of temperance recognizes that the Lord will provide what we need daily, if we will only trust in Him.

Greed overcome by generosity. "The godly virtue of generosity overcomes greed by recognizing that our greatest good is found in sharing with others in community. It celebrates the contributions of others because we are content in the value and place of our own contribution" (59). Beautifully put. Generosity is not just about money; it includes graciously giving to help others in need, but generosity can also be shown by allowing a place for the other to succeed. Our desire for money and fame is overcome by our trust that God's provision is sufficient.

Melancholy overcome by wisdom. "Melancholy and depression arise from the belief that our very existence does not matter... It concludes that the priorities by which we have structured our life will have no lingering effect after we are gone" (60-61). I definitely desire for my life to be meaningful, whatever I do with it. It seems like such a daunting task to make a difference in the world that it can be overwhelming, and can eventually lead to the feeling that it's impossible. "Wisdom, on the other hand, is the ability to recognize the role our life plays in the greater affairs of the world. It is contentment with our individual contribution and recognizing that our priorities will affect the next generation and beyond. It is celebration of the past and anticipation of the future without being overly concerned about our particular involvement. It is to enjoy our legacy without feeling we must tidy it up before we're gone" (61).

Finally, envy and happiness. This is the one that resonated the most with me--maybe because I have such talented friends and family. :) I often find myself feeling inadequate in my own gifts and abilities, because I see others' abilities and wonder if they are making a greater impact on the world than I am. You would think the way to squash these feelings of envy would be to think of yourself more highly--afterall, isn't that the opposite of thinking of others highly? Yeah... tried it, it stinks. :) Rather, it turns out the opposite of envy, happiness, is found in the ability to celebrate the skills and abilities of others, AND to celebrate my own skills and abilities. "Happiness... arises from a celebration of the mutual contributions that we make together... true happiness is possible only when our egocentrism is controlled and our ability to be other-centered is fully developed" (59).

I like that Evagrius believed that the 8 deadly thoughts could be overcome, but not in a vacuum--they must be replaced with the 8 godly virtues. He believed that although the 8 deadly thoughts were strong and loud within the mind, the godly virtues, so weak and unobtrusive, have a power that is unseen to us.

The goal is to know God; not to know about God, but to truly know God. The more we learn to appropriately respond to any physical, mental, or spiritual stimulation, are the more we are formed into the image of God, by the mercy of Christ, the more our minds will be able to fully and purely contemplate God.

All quotes taken from Foster, Richard J and Gayle D. Beebe. Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009.