7月30日 觉醒的操练

耶稣却不将自己交托他们……因他知道人心里所存的。（约二24-25）

觉醒就是在生命中再没有错误的判断。受错觉的蒙骗，会使我们对人的批评变得苛刻，好冷嘲热讽。但从神而来的觉醒，却使我们认清人的本相，而又不愤世嫉俗，也没有尖酸苦毒的说话。人生许多的痛苦，都是由于我们受错觉的蒙蔽。对别人的观感，我们只凭自己的想法，而非忠于事实。对我们来说，每一事物若非好便是坏。不愿从错觉中醒悟，是导致人生种种痛苦的因由。情形就是这样：我们若爱一个人，却不爱神，便会要求他完全正直无暇。一旦得不到，就变得残酷，要报复；我们要求的，是一个人无法做到的。只有主耶稣才能满足人心中最深的渴求。主耶稣对每种人际关系的看法，是相当严厉的；因为他知道任何一种不忠于主为基础的关系，到头来必定悲剧收场。主虽然不把自己交托给人，但他从不多疑，也不尖刻苦毒。他对神的信赖，以及对他恩典全能的信赖，使他对任何人都不绝望。我们的信赖若在人身上，结果必是对人失望。

祈祷◆主啊，对于你道路的细节，我虽然一无所知，但我期盼你奇妙的作为尽快显明。我是何其全然安息，得见你的道路时，又是何其释然。

July 30 The Discipline Of Disillusionment

“Jesus did not commit Himself unto them for He knew what was in man.” John 2:24-25

Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly severe in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they really are, and yet there is no cynicism, we have no stinging, bitter things to say. Many of the cruel things in life spring from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.

The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. It works in this way – if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give. There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why Our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord's confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man, was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone.