A quick consultation of my recent posting history has yielded the discovery that it’s been half a year since my last “Miscellany” post. Because I know that there are few things better on a mid-week morning than reading a bunch of rambling, loosely-connected thoughts from yours truly, I decided to rectify this situation today.
A quote from Richard Beck’s recent short post on self-control set me off on a bit of a tangent:
One of the reasons we have trouble connecting love to holiness is that we associate holiness with self-discipline, self-mastery, self-denial, self-control, and even self-mortification.
Love, by contrast, tends to be other-focused and affectional in nature, a matter of the heart.
And by and large, we’re more attracted to being kind and affectionate people than we are interested in the rigors of self-denial and self-discipline. The grim asceticism we associate with holiness seems far removed from the joy and spontaneity of love.
And yet, can we really love others without a foundation of self-control and self-denial?
If you can’t say no to yourself, how are you ever going to say yes to others?
A good question, that last one… Read more