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Augustine's Confessions
I’d like to
introduce you to someone who has been a tremendous influence on me. He’s a
character, who once admitted during a rebellious stage, “I was ashamed to be
less scandalous than my peers.” He was a questioner and searcher who
navigated through the rough waters of life, alternatively running from the
truth, denying the truth and finally, relentlessly seeking the truth.
He’s now referred to by title as “Saint,” but I tend to think of him as my
friend Augustine. I know. He’s been dead for more than a few centuries. But
the tales he left behind, the insight, and the soul-baring story he shared
with the world, have impacted my life and ministry in a profound,
unforgettable manner.
Augustine’s story, aptly titled Confessions, is refreshingly honest —probably
more so than I will ever be. He has been described by fans and historians as
“a great sinner who became a great saint” … “the greatest African who ever
lived, the keenest mind of the ancient world after Plato and Aristotle, the
outstanding genius of the Roman Catholic Church and the spearhead of the
Protestant Reformation”1 … and, “the best—if not the very first—psychologist
in the ancient world.”2
But what draws me to him the most is his passion and his unabashed love for
God.
Born in 354 A.D., the son of a poor, pagan freeman and a devout Christian
mother, Augustine was unusually intelligent. Shoving aside his mother’s
prayers, he spent his adolescence in rebellion, exploring sexual pleasure and
running with a gang. He eventually established himself, through higher
education, as a scholar and teacher. A mistress kept him company, and his
successful lifestyle had all the trappings of a man who had it all.
But an intense struggle plagued his life as he wrestled with his intellect,
his mother’s prayers, and his spiritual hunger to find the truth. The
Confessions are the story of that struggle and his ultimate passion for God,
which he finally expressed so eloquently: “I love you Lord, not doubtingly,
but with absolute certainty. Your Word beat upon my heart until I fell in love
with you, and now the universe and everything in it tells me to love you, and
tells the same thing to all of us, so that we are without excuse.”
The Confessions of Augustine have been translated many times throughout the
centuries, but I don’t think anyone has captured the sense of Augustine better
than my friend Dr. Sherwood Wirt. I would love to share this beautiful story
with you, so we are offering Sherwood’s modern English translation this month
to our radio listeners as a thank-you for your prayers and support.
Augustine taught me that no matter where we are in life, no matter what we’ve
done or how far we’ve strayed, it is never too late to come to the Lord and
surrender our hearts and wills to His love and mercy.
“I came to love you late, O Beauty so ancient and so new,” he wrote. “I came
to love you late. You were within me and I was outside, where I rushed about
wildly searching for you like some monster loose in your beautiful world. You
called me, you shouted to me, you broke past my deafness. You bathed me in
your light, wrapped me in your splendor…you touched me and I burned to know
your peace.”
May we all long to know His peace with such fervor!
Sincerely,
Ray Bentley
1. Sherwood E. Wirt, Faith’s Heroes, Cornerstone Books, 1979.
2. Sherwood E. Wirt, editor, The Confessions of Augustine, intro.; Zondervan
Publishing, 1971.
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