Seeking nothing but God's will

God made the poor for the rich and the rich for the poor. Lend to God and he will repay you. Some people say they believe in God who do not actually believe God. It is a greater thing to believe in God than to believe God. I might trust a man to pay me back five shillings

See also Wackernagel, No. lix, from which the last sentence is added.

I have lent him, yet not trust in the man. So if a man believes in God, why will he not trust God to repay what he lends to the poor? Whoever gives up all things gets back a hundredfold. If he expects his hundredfold, he will get nothing: he is not giving up the things but getting more, a hundredfold. Our Lord repays a hundredfold the man who leaves all things. By letting go of all things he gets a hundredfold return and eternal life. If in the course of giving things up a man happens to get back the very same thing he gave, then, since he did not give it all, he will get nothing. Anyone who looks to find something in God, knowledge, understanding, devotion, or whatever it may be, even if he finds it will not be finding God but knowledge, understanding, or devotion: all these things I commend wholeheartedly, but they do not last for him.

Seek nothing at all, not understanding, nor knowledge, nor piety, nor inwardness, nor peace, but only God's will. The soul that is as she by rights should be would not be satisfied even if God gave her his whole Godhead; it would console her no more than his giving her a fly. Knowledge of God is worthless apart from the will of God. In God's will are all things, eternal and perfect and pleasing to God; but outside God's will all things are nothing, not pleasing to God, and not perfect. Never pray for anything that passes away; if you must pray for something, pray for God's will and nothing else, for in that you have everything. To ask for anything else means getting nothing. In him there is nothing but one, and one is indivisible, and anything besides one is a part, not one. God is one, and whatever extra is sought or found is not God but a fraction. Peace, insight, or anything other than simply God's will comes from self-love and is nothing; but if a person seeks God's naked will, then whatever he finds or has revealed to him in that, he may take as a gift of God without ever wondering or checking whether it comes from nature or from grace, or where it comes from, or in what way. He need have no worry at all about that; he is going the right way, and while he keeps to the broad lines of the Christian life there is no need to examine every detail. He can simply take each thing from God, and whatever comes, accept it as the best thing for him, and have no fear of meeting anything on his lonely road, whatever he does, that would block his awareness of the love of God, which to him is all that matters.

People have a way of saying, when it falls to them to do or suffer something, 'If only I knew it was the will of God I would gladly suffer and put up with it.' Dear God, what a question for a sick man to ask, whether God intends him to be ill! He ought to know it is the will of God by the very fact that he is ill. And so with other things. Whatever comes, accept it as God's will, pure and simple. Some, when things go well for them, inwardly or outwardly, praise God and put their faith in him. They will say, for instance, 'I have gotten four quarters of corn this year, and as many of wine: I put my trust in God.' No, I say, you trust in the corn and the wine.

The soul is created for a good so great, so high, that she cannot rest in any mode; all the while she is hurrying past modes toward the eternal good, toward God, who is her goal. This is not won in the heat of the assault, in the stress and strain of action or passion, but through gentleness and true humility and self-denial in that and in everything that may happen. A man should not drive himself, saying 'I must do this whatever it costs,' for that would be wrong, since he gives too much importance to himself. If anything happens to grieve or trouble or unsettle him, again he would be wrong, for that means giving in to self. When, from the depths of humility, he calls on God for guidance and bows low before him, accepting with quiet faith whatever he sends, then he is right. It all depends, in teaching and advising, on whether a man will listen, paying no attention to anything but God. There are many and various ways of saying this, but it helps the proper working of conscience to pay no attention to what merely happens to occur, and for a man, when he is alone, to offer up his will to God and then take each thing alike from God, grace or whatever comes, inward or outward.

Whoever sees anything of God's sees nothing of God. The righteous man does not need God. What I have I am not in need of. He serves for nothing, he cares for nothing, he has God and that is all he needs. As God is higher than man, so he is readier to give than man is to receive. We cannot measure our growth in the virtuous life by fasting and good works, but a sure sign of growth is a growing love for the eternal and a lessening interest in temporal things. The man who owns a hundred crowns and gives them all in the name of God to found a monastery is doing a good work. And yet I say it would be better for him to despise and think nothing of himself for love of God. A man should, in all he does, turn his will toward God, and keeping only God in view, go forward without hesitation, not wondering, 'am I right, or am I doing something wrong?' If a painter had to plan every brushstroke before making his first mark, he would never paint at all. And if, going somewhere, we had to decide first how to put the front foot down, we would never get there. Follow your principles and keep going straight ahead; you will arrive at the right place. That is the way.

This is a collation of Meister Eckhart's.