"Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end his is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours--and the more 'religious' (on those terms), the more securely ours."
I wonder what "causes"--as noble as they may be in themselves--I allow to distract me from my devotion to Christ. Ever since I became a Christian almost ten years ago, I have been a member in the Episcopal Church. Many are aware of the theological debate that has come to a boil in the Episcopal Church, but that has been simmering for decades at least. In two weeks, I will transition from my current position as a youth and family minister in an Episcopal Church to a youth pastor in a Baptist church (Conservative Baptist, to be exact). I love the Episcopal Church, and I am saddened to see this branch of the Body fall away from the foundations of the Christian faith, not least of which are the deity of Christ, the reality of the atonement, and the inerrancy of Scripture. In recent years, I have been caught up in the goings on of the Episcopal Church, and I now realize that my devotion to this "cause" has at times distracted me from my devotion to Christ. It is not that the cause is not one worth fighting for. There are many in the Episcopal Church who have been faithful in defending the truth of Scripture and who ought to be commended as faithful servants of God. However, In my own spiritual life, I have allowed this cause take an improper place in my heart. It is all too easy to do when the cause we support is a noble one. Just because it is noble does not mean that it deserves all my attention. O God, please reveal to me all "causes" in my life that take precedence over you.
