To Find Peace, Let Go

Last updated on: December 6, 2022 at 3:47 am by Henry Karlson

To Find Peace, Let Go 2022-12-06T03:47:53-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

St. Poimen Greek Orthodox Broterhood Arizona: St Poemen/ Wikimedia Commons

We are made for greatness. We are made for righteousness. However, it is important for us to realize that to be all we can be, we must embrace true righteousness, true holiness, and not the similitude of it which we often make by the rules and obligations we demand for ourselves and others. We are to be holy even as God is holy (cf. 1 Ptr. 1:16). Such holiness is not established through laws and religious obligations, but rather, by a way of life, the way of love, for God’s holiness is revealed in and through love. When we confuse holiness with the laws which we create, we go astray. Righteousness will never be in our grasp so long as we accept such confusion. We will wear ourselves out trying to live out impossible expectations, allowing us to have no peace in our lives. And yet that is what Jesus came to bring – peace. It is a spiritual trap which suggests we should engage performative piety, thinking externals alone indicate who is and is not holy. For one who seeks holiness in this fashion will always have to put on a show, and in doing so, they will ignore their own spiritual needs. No one can engage such performance forever, and as they wear out, not only will they find themselves tired and exhausted, they will find they have attained little to no peace, the peace which would otherwise sustain them in their exhaustion. Abba Poemen, like many other great spiritual masters, learned the truth of this, and so was able to impart the wisdom of his experience with Abba Isaac, saying: “Let go of a small part of your righteousness and in a few days you will be at peace.” [1]

We will know no peace in our souls so long as we have the wrong perception of holiness, and with it, the wrong belief concerning what we should be doing. So long as was think we can and should do all things ourselves, we will be trying to do things we can’t do; this will lead us to find ourselves constantly struggling and grasping after things beyond us, leaving us wondering what is wrong with us that we can’t do what we think we should be doing. If we don’t give up on our false sense of what is expected for us, this will only lead to despair. There will be no peace in the soul so long as we ignore the foundation of our holiness lies not with ourselves, but with God. What we have to learn and accept is that the only way we can attain the holiness which God has, to be holy as God is holy, is to unite with God, and then let God work in and with us through that unity.

“He [Poemen] also said, ‘Everything that goes to excess comes from the demons.’” [2] That is, we can say demonic powers try to influence us, to have us try to do things which are excessive, in order to break us down. They help us create, as it were, a holiness code for ourselves, encouraging us to embrace it with legalistic determination, so that we then seek to follow it as well as enforce it upon others without exception, and so, without mercy. We end up becoming too demanding upon ourselves and upon others. Such expectations will destroy the spirit, as eventually, it will be seen that they cannot be followed, even if they logically all seem sound and should be easily embraced. The thing is, the more they are lived out, the more any and all moral systems will show their imperfections, as various obligations and expectations will end up conflicting with each other, making it impossible to follow all of them at once. This is why demonic powers often seem to encourage us to do what is good, because they want us to embrace an unbalanced moral code, one which will lead us to exaggerate some aspects of the good while ignoring others

Once we have embraced the exaggerated expectations of false piety, we not only lose our sense of peace, so long as we continue to embrace those expectations, we lose our hope of ever getting it back. This is where sloth comes into play, for the deadly sin of sloth is not about any and all kinds of laziness, it is inactivity borne out of despair. Legalism, which at first seems to promote active work and engagement with the world, ends up being the foundation for sloth because in the end, those who embrace legalism will see how impossible it is to fulfil legalistic expectations. Instead of seeing the problem is found in their moral system, they will continue to promote that system, expecting others to fulfill it, while giving up on themselves. They will find such discord in their soul, due to their inability to follow the rules which they believe should be followed, they end up having a great amount of discord in their soul, a discord which will lead them to the despair needed for them to become listless and inactive.

All of this is why demonic powers promote extreme legalistic ideologies, and use elements of the good to do so, for in the end, it leads to disengagement with the good. When we fall into such listlessness and despair, into such apathy, we will have a chance to change, to accept that we can’t do all things all by ourselves. That is, we will have a chance to see through such legalism and change our life. We will be able to find peace once we realize we are not expected to do all things all by ourselves, that we can and will be helped along the path towards holiness, Then we will be able to properly engage the grace we have been given and through that grace, find ourselves growing in holiness, until at last, we become even holier than we could have ever imagined, transcending, indeed, what legalism would have us believe we should be like. Thus, when we find ourselves tempted to give up, that should be a sign that we have come to a juncture in our lives. We should see legalism, and the moral code we established for ourselves, is the problem, that it is the source and foundation of our listlessness, our accidie, and use that recognition as a means to overcome it. Then, embracing the grace which transcends all such legalism, and using it to truly transform ourselves so we can be holy as God expects us to be, we will be able to gain the sense of peace that such legalism has taken away from us:

A brother asked Abbe Poemen about accidie. The old man said to him, ‘Accidie is there every time one begins something, and there is no worse passion, but if a man recognizes it for what it is, he will gain peace.”[3]

We need to stay active, but we also need to understand the limitations of that activity, not trying to force ourselves to do things which we are not ready for (or might never be expected to do). We need to give up ideological constructs which are used to create legalistic expectations, to give up a little of our pretense of righteousness, so to speak, for it is only in giving up and dying to the self in this way will we be able to truly find it. Then, the peace which we lost, but so desperately need, can and will be restored to us, and once it is, we will find that our journey is only just beginning, and what lies next is even greater, more joyful, than anything we have yet to experience.

[1] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. trans. Benedicta Ward (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 187 [Saying of Poemen #143].

[2] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 185 [Saying of Poemen #129].

[3] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 188 [Saying of Poemen #149].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Contemplative

Relationships and Religion

Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Spiritual Reflection

Previous Post

December 4, 2022

Engaging Our Time Wisely

Next Post

December 7, 2022 Love And Worship

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz