into the desert.

there was a boy who grew up in a small canadian town. as part of a tightly-knit, working-class german subculture, his family taught him early to believe in work - it's necessity, its moral value, and its rewards. leisure and rest were rarely mentioned or modeled. the boy came to view all of life through the window of work. everything, including his self-image, derived its worth from its relationship to work. "working for God" became the premise that shaped his spiritual life. believing that God was always asking him to do more by way of service, his lifestyle became one of highly extroverted, Christian activism. he evaluated spiritual success in terms of quantity of work and productivity - the only criteria he knew.

years passed. "workaholism" remained the reigning pattern of his life. during graduate studies, an interest in Christian history led him to explore Christian origins in the middle east. a series of dialogues with monks who lived in the deserts of egypt and israel arrested him. he was intrigued by the motivations of a particular monk who had lived on the side of the mount of temptation outside of jericho for over forty years. amused by the monks eccentricity and convinced of the irrelevance of his life, the young man engaged the monk in dialogue. he asked, "how does your life fulfill the great commission?" with equal directness, the monk retorted, "how do you follow Jesus into the desert?"

elements of a Christian worldview, compiled and edited by michael d. palmer, general editor stanley m. horton.

how do we follow Jesus into the desert?

marksantistevan.