Unbridled Affections

I have lived through many years of borderline poverty and a desire to rise above the level of living paycheck to paycheck under huge piles of credit. I have lived with abundance, decent pay, lots of comforts and luxury. They both have their pitfalls. I won't try to be super-spiritual and say that I'd just as soon live in poverty for some altruistic reason. I do prefer to have the ability to pay my bills and to take my family on a vacation every now and then to scraping by and answering creditor phone calls at home and at the office.

The following quote from Thomas a Kempis addresses our desires—what Jonathan Edwards called "affections." May God grant me the ability to live at peace in the way the Apostle Paul did when he said in Philippians 4:11: "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content."

When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.

True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man.