That the inward nearness of God is enough for everything.
The Hundred and Forty-fourth Letter.
That the inward nearness of God is enough for everything.
In JEsus, dearly beloved brother!
Both your previous and your latest little letter I have duly received, and they were welcome to me. As often as you find inclination to write, do so simply and in a brotherly way. I believe that it is well-pleasing to the Lord that you give me, from time to time, a little news of your inward state — yet in such a way that the mind is thereby left undisturbed, unconfused, and, in its simple form before God, unchanged.
All pondering and forethinking is not suited to your present condition; therefore the Lord lets such things come to nothing as folly, and often lets things happen quite otherwise. The inward nearness of God is enough for you for everything; to give yourself over to Him in innocence, and to abide, in the present moment, according to the spirit — this alone will be able to set you at rest. He wills to be alone Lord and Master of your understanding, your memory, and of all your inclinations, which He will incline and move according to His good pleasure; yea, He will make you, in the moment — as and where it is needful — willing and fit for that which lies upon you to do, even in outward things. Let us lose ourselves more and more in the blessed Element of the presence and love of God, until we find ourselves no more! The Lord will do it. I greet you, along with your father and the rest of your household, heartily; JEsus Christ, our Salvation!
Your brother.
Mülheim, the 25th of February 1734.
German
Der hundertundvierundvierzigste Brief.
Daß die innige Nahheit GOttes zu Allem genug sey.
In JEsu herzlich-geliebter Bruder!
So wohl dein voriges, als auch dein letzteres Brieflein habe wohl erhalten, und sind mir angenehm gewesen. So oft du Geneigtheit findest zu schreiben, so thue solches einfältig und brüderlich.
— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.
German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. A short letter of spiritual direction, written 25 February 1734 to Dietrich Reinertz — a Mülheim friend and frequent correspondent (see Letters 118, 122, 139), and brother of Anna Maria Reinertz (Letter 143). Reinertz has fallen into the good habit of writing to Tersteegen now and then about "his inward state," and Tersteegen encourages it — with one gentle caution, and then one great theme: the nearness of God is enough for everything.
Its counsel. First the caution. Reporting on one's own inner life is fine, Tersteegen says, "but only in such a way that the mind is thereby left undisturbed… and, in its simple form before God, unchanged." The danger is that watching and analysing oneself can stir up the very restlessness it means to settle. So his main counsel is against the busy, calculating mind: "All pondering and forethinking is not suited to your present condition; therefore the Lord lets such things come to nothing as folly." God deliberately frustrates our anxious planning so that we will learn to live in the present with Him. And that is the cure: "to give yourself over to Him in innocence, and to abide, in the present moment, according to the spirit — this alone will be able to set you at rest."
The heart of the letter is a bold picture of surrender. God asks to be "alone Lord and Master of your understanding, your memory, and all your inclinations" — to govern not just the will but the very faculties of the mind, inclining and moving them "according to His good pleasure," and making a person ready "in the moment" for whatever outward duty falls to him. The aim is not a tense self-mastery but a glad self-loss: "Let us lose ourselves more and more in the blessed Element of the presence and love of God, until we find ourselves no more!" — with the quiet confidence that "the Lord will do it."
A few words and echoes.
- "The inward nearness of God is enough for everything." The letter's whole message. God's felt presence within is a sufficient rule and resource for the whole of life — one need not scheme or foresee, only stay near Him.
- "Pondering and forethinking… come to nothing." An echo of 1 Corinthians 1:19–20 — God "brings to nothing the wisdom of the wise." The anxious planning mind is not the organ of the spiritual life; God often overturns our forecasts on purpose.
- "In the present moment." A characteristic Tersteegen (and quietist) theme, later made famous by de Caussade as "the sacrament of the present moment": God is met not in the remembered past or the imagined future but in the now, as it comes from His hand.
- "Lord and Master of your understanding, memory, and inclinations." Total surrender reaches even the mind's faculties — a giving-over of understanding and memory themselves to God's governance (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:5, "bringing into captivity every thought").
- "Lose ourselves… until we find ourselves no more." The paradox at the centre of Tersteegen's mysticism: to "lose" the anxious, self-occupied self in God's presence is to find true rest (cf. Matthew 10:39, "he that loseth his life… shall find it"; Galatians 2:20, "not I, but Christ").
- "The blessed Element." An "element" is the medium a creature is made to live in — as a fish in water. God's presence and love, Tersteegen says, is the true "element" of the soul, where alone it is at home.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thi-144 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.