A post from Roger Nebel

I’m humbled and amazed by how Madame Guyon described and lived a life of active sacrifice. She describes this life most eloquently in her poetry.

Let us with supreme affection
Love His eternal, fatherly will
If this costs us pain and sorrow
Every sigh has its reward

Her mystical life is not unlike that of the monastic where the daily routine might be noted for its slowly repeating rhythm, very often hard work, punctuated with the highs of prayer and worship (and for Guyon, the joys of her children) with the, at first glance, apparent lows of sacrifice and being pursued by the power of the infamous lettres de cachet. Indeed, Madame Guyon’s life was remarkable for its many highs and apparent lows, and her dependence on Christ throughout.

And if I could become queen, if I changed my conduct, I could not do this. And when my simplicity caused me all the trouble in the world, I could not leave the simplicity.

Some have tried to paint Madame Guyon with the monotone of passive withdrawal and blamed her so-called lows on this passive quietism. This one dimensional portrait misses the glorious experience that Madame Guyon writes of in her expressive poetry – which like the Old Testament Song of Songs depicts a person actively seeking the utter giving up that comes from the unquestioning sacrifice of love.

Ah, Reign over all the world
I desire, oh my dear husband,
This and no other reward
But to see all hearts turning to you.

For Madame Guyon, the ideal was utter abandonment knowing that the true cost was suffering, and yet actively seeking a deeper attainment of that ideal and indeed embracing the suffering as the most natural outcome.

It is in God only they find a refuge;
They want God’s rigor and yearn for God’s judgment
And when pierced through with vehemence
They never speak a word against the divine Judge

The terrors of death surround them,
That challenges their pure abandon,
But since they know the gift of God
They call the Justice very good.

Thus I’m humbled and amazed at the power of sacrifice that Guyon points us at, calls us to, and leads us into, by her example and by her own passionate account. May the Lord Jesus Christ lead me too.