By Jim Langley | August 3, 2019 | 10:30 a.m.
Many years ago I picked up a paperback copy of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War and Peace. After reading just a few pages, I distinctly remember putting it down once I realized how long it would take me to read this epic literary work.
The title is certainly catchy and I must admit I was greatly intrigued with the topic as a young man. Yet, it never became a priority to devote hours upon hours to read it from front to end. Well over 1,000 pages in length, I decided my time could be better spent in other endeavors.
In researching the man, I was intrigued that the author and I had at least one thing in common. We were both artillery officers who faced the implications of death in war.
Tolstoy served in the Russian army during the Crimean War. Mine was Vietnam, but war is war. Obviously his military experience had an impact on his life as it does on everyone who faces their own mortality.
Once you’ve been in battle it’s only natural to long for peace. Yet peace is elusive and war is all around us.
The adversity we face in life always shapes us into who we become. After his war experience, Tolstoy became a pacifist and searched for answers in other religions. Raised in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a boy, he found himself traveling the road of reformed Christianity mixed with other Middle Eastern theologies.
Later in life Tolstoy often shared thoughts through letters with a younger Mahatma Gandhi, who eventually led India to freedom from the rule of England as its eventual prime minister.
They both practiced asceticism — a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures to pursue spiritual goals. Tolstoy even walked away from the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, being concerned that accepting the financial prize would interfere with his pursuit of abstinence.
In my personal spiritual journey I’ve never felt a need to radically withdraw from society or take on a frugal lifestyle. I believe that my Lord wants all His followers to boldly live for Christ and remain an integral part of this corrupt world for the benefit of those who do not yet have a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father.
As Christians were reminded by Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Let’s take this discussion a bit further into our lifestyle in this world. In doing business we are often faced with schemes that appear to be beneficial and worthy of financial consideration. As a Christian, I covet the counsel of others whom I trust will help me to make wise choices as I navigate through life. Prayer plays an immense role in those decisions as well.
I’m often reminded of the words of Jesus’ half-brother in James 4:13-17: “Now then you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
Unfortunately we all complicate our lives with the lusts of this world. To an extent, perhaps Tolstoy and others have a point in their devotion to abstaining from the sensual pleasures all around us.
However, I choose to serve my Lord in the world even though I know I’m not of it. We need to be an example for those who do not yet know of His goodness and the true reason He came down from Heaven to die for the sin of all mankind.
I look forward to His imminent return knowing that true peace will not come until The Day of the Lord. His judgment on this world comes when He returns in the clouds just as He departed 2,000 years ago. Come soon, Lord Jesus!
Passages to Ponder
» Psalms 34:11-16
» Ecclesiastes 3:1
» Ecclesiastes 3:8
» Micah 4:1-5
» Luke 12:35-37
— Jim Langley has been writing for more than 30 years while working as a life and health insurance agent in Santa Barbara. In recent years, his passion has turned to writing about his personal relationship with God, and his goal is to encourage others to draw near to Him as well. As a longtime member of CBMC of Santa Barbara (Christian Business Men’s Connection), he started writing Fourth Quarter Strategies columns in 2014, and he now reaches an international audience through the CBMC International devotional Monday Manna. He can be contacted at [email protected] for more information. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
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