I love stumbling across little nuggets of history which give insight into the people of the past. A couple days ago as I was thumbing through Calvin’s Company of Pastor’s I came upon some advice from Simon Goulart to one of his friends. It is an apt summary of the early Reformed view of living life. Here are Goulart’s five tips and his conclusion:
- Live with other people as if God were watching. Speak with God as if others were listening.
- Endure with greatest patience what you are not able to change, and walk with God (by whose authority all things occur) without complaining. Evil and wretched is the person who follow after the commander of Hell.
- In times of activity as much as in periods of rest, all dimensions of life ought to be beautiful.
- Commit your way to God. Hope in him, and he will do it.
And Goulart’s summary statement, “Only eternal things endure”. (108)
A few things strike me about Goulart’s life advice. First, notice how much this doesn’t fit the typical view of those in Geneva—or the later Puritans. They weren’t the glum souls that you often think of when you picture Calvin and his company of pastors. These were men who pursued joy in every area of life.
Secondly, I absolutely love their vision of God over everything. It absolutely influenced everything they did and thought. That first point is worth putting on a coffee mug. Can you imagine how transformed your conversations and prayer life would be if you followed this advice.
Lastly, John Piper isn’t kidding when he says that he didn’t make this Christian hedonism stuff up. There is a rich history of “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him”. Though they didn’t articulate it quite the way that Piper did that theology flows through the veins of these four pieces of advice. And they are worth heeding.
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Photo source: here (I understand why you might think Goulart was a dour man)
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