Mechthild of Magdeburg lived independently as a beguine until she could no longer care for herself. James Finley highlights what we can learn from Mechthild as she approached her death:
She continued on in this way, writing and living with the beguines, into old age. She reached a point of fragility when she became blind and wasn’t able to dress or feed herself. She moved to a monastery of Cistercian nuns who took care of her. Not only did she go blind, and not only could she not do anything for herself, but God took away all traces of the felt sense of God’s love. She comes to the end of her life in a state of powerlessness. She says that if God wishes her to live this way, then she wishes it too. She begins to express deep gratitude for the nuns and the way they care for her as a way she experiences God’s love for her in her powerlessness.
Here is Mechthild’s prayer expressing her gratitude to God for her powerlessness:
Thus speaks a beggar woman in her prayer to God:
Lord, I thank You that since in Your love You have taken from me all earthly riches, You now clothe and feed me through the goodness of others, so that I no longer know those things that might clothe my heart in pride of possession.
Lord, I thank You that since You have taken my sight from me, You serve me through the eyes of others.
Lord, I thank You that since You have taken from me the strength of my hands and the strength of my heart, You now serve me with the hands and hearts of others. [1]
Finley continues:
Her life comes full circle, where the places of the ecstasy in her heart, and the places of utter poverty and brokenness form a circle, and the brokenness and the ecstasy touch each other and she becomes utterly ordinary. She becomes utterly ordinary, falling away from the ability to gain footing by her own power to do anything at all. The last two books of The Flowing Light of the Godhead are dictated because she couldn’t write anymore; she dictated it and she died writing it. She ends her book with a dialogue between her soul and her body in death:
Then we shall no longer complain.
Then everything that God has done with us
Will suit us just fine,
If you will now only stand fast
And keep hold of sweet hope. [2]
How can we learn then to be unraveled by love, as Mechthild was? I’ll put it another way: the very fact that we are being touched by the beauty of these mystics means that we are being unraveled by this love. It’s already unfolding. It’s already being laid bare in the unresolved matters of our heart. Mechthild then mentors us in this love and is unexplainably trustworthy throughout our days.
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Joy Fueled
The Gospel of Knowledge and Duty
Some years ago, at a large conference, a speaker shared lots of information about unreached people groups around the world—the billions who do not yet know Christ. He reminded everyone of the Great Commission in Matthew 28. (Most of us have been reminded of the Great Commission dozens of times before.) Then the speaker began snapping his fingers as if counting time. Tears filled his eyes as he implored the audience: “Every second, thousands of people are dying without knowing Christ.” Snap. Snap. Snap. “What are you going to do about it?” Snap. Snap. Snap. The large room fell silent as he continued to snap. Many in the audience were crying. They appeared deeply moved and ready to sign up for the tremendous task of reaching their generation for Christ, no matter the cost. Perhaps you have heard sermons like that or attended conferences with this kind of presentation: 6,500 unreached people groups… 2.5 billion people never heard the name of Jesus… our evangelism and church planting aren’t working…. we are debtors to Christ… no amount of sacrifice will compare to what he has done.
Who could fail to be moved by this presentation? This kind of motivation? We call this the “gospel of knowledge and duty.” The more knowledge we have, the more we will feel obliged to serving, and therefore, the more we will serve. Yet we have several questions. Is this approach effective in the long run? Thousands or even millions of people have been motivated to ministry by this type of presentation. But, is it really good “fuel”? Is this approach healthy?
Does it result in emotionally healthy Christians? Is it biblical? Is this the kind of motivation that we see in the Bible? Effective Fuel? Healthy Fuel? Biblical Fuel? As we have said, the gospel of knowledge and duty can sound very spiritual, but we contend that these are actually inadequate types of fuel. When knowledge and duty are all we have, they are not really good news (the meaning of gospel) because, as Galatians 3:21-22 tells us, in the long run, this knowledge and duty cannot produce righteousness. Only a relationship with Jesus can do that.
Knowledge and duty produce guilt and obligation, which can be effective at starting an engine but, unfortunately, this fuel, so to speak, corrodes over time. These motivations do produce activity. However, there is a terrible price to pay when a person does not mature beyond these motivations into others more sustainable. The results are Christians who are not only exhausted, burned out and disillusioned but also thwarted in their emotional maturity and relational knowledge of God. Leaders are drawn into ministry for many reasons. Often a dramatic presentation of the great spiritual need in the world and our obligation or duty based on the Great Commission plays a significant part. Again, this conviction is not a bad thing. However, if guilt and obligation continue to be the main motivations, the results are not good. These things do not teach us what to do with our heavy emotions that come with life and ministry—emotions like grief, anger, discouragement, hopelessness and despair.
Guilt and duty are not capable of helping us through these difficult times. The shocking statistics below from one survey illustrate the long term results in the lives of pastors facing high levels of stress without an adequate joy base.
● 75% of pastors report being “extremely stressed” or “highly stressed”
● 90% feel fatigued and worn out every week
● 80% will not be in ministry 10 years later
● 91% have experienced some form of burnout in ministry
● Seminary-trained pastors average only five years in church ministry
Even more grievous than these results are the destructive behaviors that come as a result of ministering with these ineffectual motivations. In our combined years of ministry alone, we have seen numerous pastors and/or their spouses end up in inappropriate sexual relationships or substance abuse in an attempt to numb the destructive feelings they do not know how to handle. Many lives, marriages and whole communities are destroyed when this happens. We are convinced that these statistics and experiences would be different if the people of God understood the danger of living guilt-based or duty-driven compared to the amazing power of living joy-fueled.
White, John C.; Daniels, Toni M.; Smith, Dr Kent. Joy Fueled: Catalyzing a Revolution of Joyful Communities (LK10 Core Values) (pp. 11-14). LK10. Kindle Edition.
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