Being Disciples of Christ

“The character of our earthly life is constant expectation of God’s call from this life to the other. We are not our own; we are the servants of God, as the Church so rightly calls us; and servants ought to hourly await their Lord’s call. He will knock, and you must go; ‘that they may open unto him immediately’ (St Luke XII 36).

But meanwhile, how do we live? We have entirely forgotten that we are servants of God; we think that we belong to ourselves, and order our lives not in accordance with God’s commandments, but in accordance with our own will; we live as we like. And it is owing to this that our life is full of numberless sins.

Look upon human life, and you will see that it is full of ‘vanity of vanities; all is vanity’ (Ecclesiastes I. 2): fashions, theatres, card-playing, dancing parties, masquerades, luxurious furniture, pictures and so on. Everything for ourselves and nothing for our neighbor; he may go naked, or die from hunger and cold.” (St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ, p 277)