It came in an out-of-the-blue fashion during a Tim Keller message and stung me like a paint gun pellet (hey, those hurt if you didn’t know). I stopped my workout, hit pause on my earbuds, and stood there a bit dazed like I’d been hit in the face by my wife’s favorite cast iron skillet, which she uses to make some seriously good steaks.
Maybe you’ve had a moment like that — something was said to you or a thought crossed your mind and it caused you to throw whatever you were doing into park and everything stopped. In my case, Keller had let fly a quote by the English Anglican priest William Temple who said:
“Religion is what you do with your solitude.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Stop and think about that for a minute. I’ll wait.
All done? So, now ‘fess up. Does Temple’s statement give you pause, make you reflect just a little, cause any reaction whatsoever?
In my case, I had a reaction all right. I did what any good Christian person does when they get convicted by something said to them.
I got mad.
I immediately started having a conversation with an imaginary friend that went along the lines of, “So, this guy’s saying that when I finally break free of work or other obligations and get some downtime to do what I’d like to do, if that’s not some sort of Christian activity or effort for God, I’m a schmag believer? If I’m deciding to spend some of my leisure time woodworking, gardening, doing some sport, or watching movies, that’s making a statement about what my true religion is?!?”
After that, I did the next thing we do when we think we’re in the wrong and fall short in some area. We make a mental list of things we do that supposedly prove how good we are.
“Plus, don’t my knees hit the floor pretty much first thing? And when I’m at the gym, I’m listening to the Word being taught. And when eating lunch, I’m in Bible study. And when I’m driving, it’s Christian music playing. Plus there are my various areas of Christian service. I mean, that ain’t enough?”
Pretty sad, huh?
Now you might be thinking I have a bit of a problem jumping the gun and sometimes responding to things in a knee-jerk and irrational manner. You’re right. But what made it especially weird for me is I really don’t have any pastime-styled activity you’ll find me always doing at a “religious” level when I’m not working or otherwise involved in your standard day-to-day things.
But Temple’s quote stuck with me. And then, to make matters worse, I remembered something A. W. Tozer wrote that takes Temple’s words to a Jesus Sermon-on-the-Mount level:
“What we think about when we are free to think about what we will — that is what we are or will soon become.”
That sends us from the “doing” level to the “thinking” level in our solitude. How about now? Convicted at all?
If you’re starting to squirm a bit, then welcome to what I was feeling. And in situations like this, sometimes the remedy for curing the pain becomes not so much finding the answer to why you feel the way you do but facing the answer.
What has your attention, has you
When it comes to what we think or do, the Greek philosopher Euripides said no one is truly free. He argued that we either serve wealth, some kind of law, or people we seek to please, which includes ourselves.
Sounds about right. As Christians, the person we seek to please should be God, but so many other things can get in the way.
As I meditated on what Temple and Tozer said, I realized they were asking us to take a personal inventory and see who and what really comes first in our lives, with our solitude and private thoughts being good indicators of what has our hearts.
And as missionary E. Stanley Jones once said, “What has your attention has you.”
Not surprisingly, the Bible has plenty to say about what should have our attention and thoughts. Our priority, it says, is to “set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2) and “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2), which involves “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
We’re told a Christian’s “delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2); that we are to “take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all” (1 Tim. 4:15) because as a person “thinks within himself, so he is” (Prov. 23:7). And when it comes to what we do, we’re told, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
OK, fine, but does that mean every free moment we get should be directed at nothing but Bible study, prayer, and some sort of Christian service? Don’t send me hate mail for saying this, but I think not.
Here’s why I say that: Scripture says God “richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17, my emphasis). That includes our interests, pastimes, possessions, and more. So, we don’t need to feel guilty (which is why I wrongly went off when I first heard Temple’s words) about reasonably enjoying those things.
At the same time, we need to remember that sin is, at its core, a dislocation of the heart that causes it to stray from God. In his work Confessions, Augustine argued that this manifests in what he called humankind’s biggest problem, which is “disordered loves.”
He said that sometimes it’s not so much that we love the wrong things, but we have them in the wrong sequence. That happens when we get our priorities jumbled and begin to, as Tim Keller has said, lose the absolute One when we start absolutizing anything else.
After some more thinking as to why Temple’s quote got under my skin so much, I had to confess that some of my Christian practices had become routine, devoid of the right motivation and that I also had some disordered loves, which needed adjustment. Easy to admit, but sometimes hard to correct.
Why? Because when it comes to our desires and priorities, as the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote: “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.”
As Christians we struggle with the wants of both our old and new natures just as Paul said: “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Gal. 5:17).
That being true, I’m still at work ensuring my “loves” are properly ordered and I keep Temple and Tozer’s words in front of me to measure my progress. For now, I’m where Paul found himself when he said: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12).
One day, though, I’ll get there, as will you. God has promised that: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
