I recently read about how monasteries came about. It was fascinating to learn how they were instituted primarily out of a need to keep certain Christians safe. The account spoke of how before there were monasteries some Christians would subject themselves to a prolonged period of isolation in a desert so that they would experience suffering and build their dependence on God. Those who would choose this life believed that doing so was consistent with God’s will for them and a means by which they would glorify Him and grow in their faith. They held that isolation was a means to holiness and that it also allowed them to stay separate from the world and all of its vices and temptations. The problem was that as these individuals journeyed out into the desert they became the victims of predators, both the animal and human kind. Additionally, they were not able to continue the practice this lifestyle for long since it quickly became the case that they did not have the means to live in such conditions for an extended period of time. Therefore monasteries were founded in order to provide a safe environment for such individuals to carry out the life they were choosing before God. Indeed, in some of the earliest forms of monasteries, they were structured to have rooms where an individual would be isolated from everyone in the community for sometimes as long as a year so that they could continue to set themselves apart for God. Food would be brought to the person living in such a manner in a way that minimized human contact.
As I read the account, several questions came to mind. Why did these individuals end up believing that this was the preferred way to live before God? I even learned that some of these individuals would subject themselves to horrific levels of physical abuse (either by their own hand or by the hand of others). I struggled with why they would do this as well, finding the explanation that they wanted to take on the sufferings of Christ inadequate in helping me to understand.
What are we to learn from these approaches to godliness? Is there anything in these accounts that should prompt us to consider if isolation (in the form described) and self-inflicted injury is a means to godliness? No. Yet the accounts did cause me to think further about the value of spending significant amounts of time alone with God in an area that is free from the distractions of the world. It also made me ask myself about my own personal willingness to give up worldly comforts so that the Kingdom of God would be advanced. While the example of the monks is extreme, I had to think about the creature comforts that surround me and if I should be foregoing some of them (or more of them) and instead use the money to further support the church, the spread of the Gospel, a missionary, or the poor. I have not yet answered those questions. Of course I would never commend any form of self-abuse or abuse by others, but I have to ask if I have gone too far in making myself comfortable without paying any mind as to how my choices impact the work of God and others.
For me, more time will be needed to wrestle with these questions. Don’t worry, I will not be parading myself or my family off to the nearest desert, but I do believe I will have to examine just how much time I am setting apart for God and how much I am willing to let go of so that His causes might be advanced.
Rob