I'm writing about the Life of Antony by Athanasius. The reading was a narrative about the life of Antony as it were. Antony was an Egyptian Christian from a wealthy family. He had little ambition and was perfectly content to stay home and take care of his sister. One day when Antony went to the house of the Lord he heard the story of the rich man who was bid sell everything you have to fallow me. Antony really took this story to heart. He immediately sold everything he had and, after settling his sister in a convent, began living as a hermit. He worked to support himself and everything that did not need he gave to the poor. Antony dedicated himself to the Lord and disciplined him self to resist temptation. The reading told of Antony's great temptation as he was attacked over and over again by the devil and his demons but even under this great temptation he never gave in, he remained in constant prayer and because of this he was able to stay strong. Even when the devil came to him with physical attack Antony never turned his back on the Lord, he stayed true to his discipline and did not fall into sin. Antony is a marvelous example of a Christian who was willing to suffer for the faith and stay true in the face of temptation.
Antony looked fist to a member of his community as a role model. The text speaks of an old man in the town who also lived as a hermit and Antony took his cue form this man, fallowing in his footsteps. I think he also looked to the followers of Jesus and to Jesus himself as an example of how to live his life and stay strong in the face of sever temptation.
In my life one of the biggest role models has been my grandmother. She has a very strong faith and she almost always puts that faith into action. Another role model for me is my aunt Annie. She is a lutheran classroom teacher which is what i want to be. She has a faith that is very encouraging to me and she always encourages me in my faith. She has the out look of never worry because God will take care of it what ever it is. A third role model for me is my mom. My mom may not be an out spoken Christian, she does not volunteer at every opportunity at our church, she does not teach sunday school but she has such a sincere faith. Every decision she makes comes form the foundation she has in Christ be it a decision at home, dealing with the way she parents, or the way she runs her company, or the way she votes and I really look up to her for that. In 10 or 15 years I hope to be a strong role model for the kids in my classroom. I hope that they can learn form me how to use the talents they have been given and not look at others talents and say, well if I could do what Johnny could do then I would serve God, but that the look at themselves and see what they can do now to serve God, I hope I can help them to see that.
Now if I can go away from the assignment for a moment I would like to briefly discuss something that stuck out to me in this reading and in other reading form this time period. We always seam to glorify these early Christians who gave up everything and lived as hermits or led monastic lives but I would like to question them for a moment. We are called to serve God by serving his people, I would like to ask how are these men who live solitary lives out in the desert serving God. Maybe it is not for me to ask maybe it is not for me to judge but as this is my blog I will anyway. Now I will give credit to Antony to some extent, the text points out that what ever money he made that he did not spend on his bread he gave to the poor and I commend him for this but what about later in the story, what about when he locks him self away in a tomb so that he can be entirely alone and be better able to resist temptation, what good was he doing then. I would argue very little. I don't understand why we idolize these men in church history simply because they led these wonderfully sinless lives but did nothing. Were it up to me I would focus on the humble sinner who reached out his fellow sinner and really did something rather than shutting him self away somewhere so that he can live a pure life for them self.
