Choosing Godliness in 2024

As each calendar year begins again my mind is often drawn to a Radiohead song: “Fitter happier, more productive, comfortable, not drinking too much, regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week), getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries.” It’s the time of year when people resolve to better themselves. This year, why not resolve to sin less?

I don’t mean to suggest you will make it through 2024 without sinning, but perhaps you, Christian, can sin less this year than last. It is, after all, possible to progress and become more proficient in the Christian life. Indeed, this is precisely what we are so encouraged by in the lives of the saints. Saints are not those who no longer sin but those who sin less because the life and love of God are coming more fully alive in them.

An important caveat here is provided by the prayer book: apart from the grace of God in Christ, we can do “no good thing” (Collect for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany). In other words, apart from the quickening and strengthening of the Holy Spirit, our attempts to move Godward are ultimately in vain, as a plant locked away in a dark room is unable to reach the light of the sun.

However, by the grace of God a window has been opened and a new light has come pouring in. Touched by its radiance and warmth, we now may grow toward its source. Christians are not perfect peaches, but they are new creatures made so by the grace of God in the sacrament of holy baptism. Indeed, “the old has passed away, behold, the new has come,” says Paul (2 Cor. 5:17).

Now the word of God is a light to lighten the path. Now we are enabled and empowered to keep his statutes and walk in his ways. Now we can learn to submit our will to the will of the Father, as Christ in the garden did, and pray, “Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, Make us to love that which thou dost command” (Collect for Proper 25). Having been made regenerate, it is now possible for us to choose the good, having our will stirred by the Holy Spirit.

There is a scene in the middle of The Lord of the Rings that provides a fitting illustration. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo had received a gift from Galadriel, “the greatest of elven women,” in the form of a phial containing the light of Eärendil’s star. “It will shine still brighter when night is about you,” says Galadriel. “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”

Shift to the end of The Two Towers, when Frodo indeed found himself in a dark place. He felt a great pressure to put on the ring. It was as if his will had been subdued by some power outside of himself. He felt his hand move, little by little, toward the ring hanging about his neck. “Then his own will stirred; slowly it forced the hand back and set it to find another thing, a thing lying hidden near his breast,” and his grip closed around the phial of Galadriel. “As he touched it, for a while all thought of the Ring was banished from his mind” (The Two Towers, p. 396; emphasis added).

In a moment of great temptation, Frodo felt his will stirred, and was able to resist by setting his mind, and hand, on “another thing,” a good thing. It was sufficient for him to recollect the promise of Galadriel. So too the Christian, when confronted with temptation, may resist by a stirring of her will — an act of recollection — enabling her to reach for some other thing, a token of a promise.

F.P. Harton has written about the importance of recollection for the Christian life, which he describes as the conscious movement of the soul toward God. “No soul can expect to be led of the Spirit … if he allow large parts of his life to pass without any conscious movement towards God. One needs to be more than a Sunday Christian … one needs the growing practice of recollection which fills all life with God and makes it a continual prayer” (Elements of the Spiritual Life, 84).

Likewise, Martin Thornton, influenced by Harton, describes recollection as the “practice of the presence of God.” There are two types of recollection, he says: habitual and actual. Habitual recollection is a constant state of the soul: “The state of permanent God-centredness wherein the presence of God is known, felt or realized continuously and without major interruption” (Christian Proficiency, 60). Though often subconscious, this state colors the whole of life. However, according to Thornton, this state is “the highest degree of proficiency to which we can normally hope to attain,” and therefore difficult to come by.

Furthermore, most of us exist in a state of habitual distraction. If we’re honest, our souls are a mess of interests, thoughts, emotions, and desires that we are hopeless to straighten out, despite our best intentions and New Year’s resolutions. Ultimately it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring order out of the chaos of our lives, and yet we can learn to cooperate with the grace of God. It is just here that actual recollection can be of great benefit.

Thornton describes actual recollection thus: “a discipline whereby momentary acts of prayer are made periodically throughout the working day.” Acts of recollection are those intentional and sometimes small acts whereby we consciously turn to God at regular times throughout our day. “It is a simple, momentary response to his ever-present love, a remembrance of his presence.” Such acts are one way to resist the habitually distracted state in which we find ourselves and to condition our souls toward habitual recollection instead, and thus are a good aim for the ordinary Christian.

Going to church is one such act of recollection. In a time when attending church once a month is considered regular, one can imagine the cumulative effect of attending twice and so doubling one’s exposure to the proclamation of the gospel in word and sacrament. Never mind prioritizing weekly church attendance even over family obligations and children’s sporting commitments.

But one needs to be more than a Sunday Christian, as Harton observed. After all, it’s so easy to forget about God in between. Other examples of actual recollection are things like saying grace before meals and other daily prayers (with your family, if you have one), reading the Bible devotionally, and keeping religious artifacts in the home or on the desk in one’s office.

For example, by the front door of our home hangs a crucifix. Small ceramic crosses hang over the doors of our children’s bedrooms, reminders as we come and go. A number of years ago in Bethlehem, I acquired a small cross made of olive wood that can be held in the hand. Most days I carry it with me in my pocket. I’m not often conscious of it, but throughout the day I will notice it and thus it serves as a reminder of the ever presence of God and I am able, even for a moment in the midst of a busy day, to turn my attention to him.

The precise form and practice of this matters little and can be tailored to each individual’s particular circumstances, so long as the effect is the recollection of Christ. I am able to say Morning Prayer each day in our parish chapel while someone else may be prohibited because of a job. However, that same person could make the sign of the cross each morning while getting out of bed or say the Lord’s Prayer as work begins. Even small acts done with intention a few times throughout the day can make a big difference in the course of a week, a year, a life.

If you’re new to this, it may at first feel forced or artificial, but it can very quickly become spontaneous and delightful. Moreover, it is not difficult to imagine how these acts of recollection could change one’s life for the better, leading to a deeper sense of living in the presence of God. Imagine going about your day with a growing awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence. How would that affect the decisions you make and the temptations you face? I suspect that one would be less inclined to give into temptation and sin if one were conscious of being in the presence of the living God.

This will take courage, to be sure, and the devil would rather you not. But next time you are faced with temptation and feel you are at the crossroads once again, choose the good. Feel the Holy Spirit stirring your will and then set your hand to find another thing, a good thing, a thing that will remind you of the faithfulness and nearness of God. Then do it again. And again. In 2024, chose godliness.