It must be realized that the true sign of spiritual endeavour and the price of success in it is suffering. One who proceeds without suffering will bear no fruit. Pain of the heart and physical suffering bring to light the gift of the Holy Spirit, bestowed in holy baptism upon every believer, buried in passions through our negligence in fulfilling the commandments, and brought once more to life by repentance, through the ineffable mercy of God.

—Theophan the Recluse

Such a bargain here. In seeking to grow in our relationship with God, we are promised that we have to suffer. Makes us want to sign right up, doesn’t it? Yet hard as Theophan’s words sound to us, they point us to the plight of the human condition. Humans can only find life in God, the Source and Author of all life. Yet we muck about trying to find life elsewhere because we are rebellious creatures. We don’t want anyone to tell us what to do or how to conduct our lives.

Theophan points us to the seriousness of the human condition. The only remedy is to take our medicine and let God heal us in his way and in his time. Most of us would not hesitate to suffer at the hands of a doctor if we were convinced that in doing so he or she would heal us in the process. Why then do we shrink from doing what God tells us we must do to have real life with him?