What Endures When the Waters Recede

The Immeasurable Loss of a Life Abstracted from God

“The greatest misfortune of a man is to live without God in his soul.”

— St. Theophan the Recluse

Life passes in the blink of an eye, and more often than not we are carried along by currents we did not choose. Much cannot be avoided. Much cannot be changed. And yet, in the midst of all this movement, the heart is easily drawn away from its one true labor: abiding in God.

I do not regret the difficulties or demands that life has placed before me, nor the work entrusted to my hands, nor the encounters through which others may have been drawn closer to Christ or touched by some measure of healing. These things belong to providence. They are not lost.

What grieves the heart is something quieter and more subtle: how easily life becomes governed by busyness and conflict, how readily we complicate what Christ has made simple. We pursue matters that have little to do with the Gospel, little to do with the life of the Church, and almost nothing to do with love.

Relationships fracture under the slow weight of resentment and jealousy. Hearts harden through calculation and the desire to control, to secure advantage, to protect the self. And this sickness is not foreign to the Church. It may even be more dangerous there, hidden, justified, baptized in pious language, blinding the eye of the heart while convincing it that it sees clearly.

Looking back, and standing honestly in the present moment, one truth grows ever more luminous: a life shaped by prayerful silence, simplicity, gentleness, and generosity is more pleasing in the sight of God than all the restless achievements we prize. Even a life entirely hidden, unknown, and forgotten by the world may shine more brightly before Him than one crowded with recognition.

When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Will He find it in me?

Love is not blind, nor is it complex. It does not calculate. It does not clamor for control. It is humble and unassuming, and because it is pure, it sees God, clearly, quietly, everywhere.

Whatever remains of my life, and whatever path God places before me in His providence, may it be shaped by these simple realities alone. May it be ordered toward what endures. May it be faithful to what passes into eternity.