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The Imitation of Christ
Thomas à Kempis
The Thirty-Third Chapter
RESTLESSNESS OF SOUL -- DIRECTING OUR FINAL INTENTION TOWARD GOD
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, do not trust in your present feeling, for it will soon give way to
another. As long as you live you will be subject to changeableness in spite of
yourself. You will become merry at one time and sad at another, now peaceful but
again disturbed, at one moment devout and the next indevout, sometimes diligent
while at other times lazy, now grave and again flippant.
But the man who is wise and whose spirit is well instructed stands superior to
these changes. He pays no attention to what he feels in himself or from what
quarter the wind of fickleness blows, so long as the whole intention of his mind
is conducive to his proper and desired end. For thus he can stand undivided,
unchanged, and unshaken, with the singleness of his intention directed
unwaveringly toward Me, even in the midst of so many changing events. And the
purer this singleness of intention is, with so much the more constancy does he
pass through many storms.
But in many ways the eye of pure intention grows dim, because it is attracted to
any delightful thing that it meets. Indeed, it is rare to find one who is
entirely free from all taint of self-seeking. The Jews of old, for example, came
to Bethany to Martha and Mary, not for Jesus' sake alone, but in order to see
Lazarus.
The eye of your intention, therefore, must be cleansed so that it is single and
right. It must be directed toward Me, despite all the objects which may
interfere.
