Hounded by the urge to please others, I flee from myself. Piling up what is “good”, “right”, and “proper”, I cover up what is true. I surrender my voice to the choir of the world and grow deaf to that tune I was born to deliver.
There is a hell for those who “loved the praise of men more than the praise of God”, and that is the unlived, meaningless life. A land of shades but no people, of mere opinions and ideas that feast on flesh.
The praise of men speaks in pride and shame; God’s praise is as silent as love. The praise of men makes and unmakes selves; God’s praise no self can enter. The praise of men is fear and a cage, while God praises by setting free.
The praise of God is a clean conscience; this no man can give or take away. It cannot be bought or bargained for; it cannot be won and paraded in the streets. It is the quietest thing, invisible, ungraspable, known only from within.
May we love the praise of God,
Simeon
“The highest good is like water. Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive. It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.”
—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 8
Suggested Reading
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
What remains when the world withdraws its applause? In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl reveals that the truest dignity arises in answering life’s call with conscience, not consensus.
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This piece reflects on the meaning of Jesus’ suffering through a different lens: not as tragedy or transaction, but as the expression of a life guided by an inner truth no crowd could touch. Here is an invitation to find that inner truth and the freedom it brings.