Curious Christian

In Ecclesiastes 27:21, Qoheleth observes:

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
But man is tested by the praise he receives.

When I read this I am reminded that the way of Jesus is the alchemy of everyday life. Christ was the quintessential activist and he calls me to follow him into the same arena. One temptation I face when reading the Christian mystics in the hyper-individualist context of today is the seductive lie that Christian meditation is a solitary path. Not so. Jesus repeatedly equated love of God with love of neighbour. Qoheleth suggests that the fruitfulness of spiritual disciplines are reality checked most effectively in social contexts. We are called to prepare our minds for action, not to indulge in peak experiences as though they were an end in themselves. It is in the context of the active life that our genuiness is tested.