We’ve looked at don’t “follow your heart” in the life of King David and in a pastor’s modern-day story. Here’s another example.

In a review of a book, Aaron Damiani, pastor of Immanuel Anglican Church in Chicago, includes an intriguing story about Dorothy Day, about whom I knew nothing. Turns out she was a complicated woman who who gave her life to working for the poor:

Day was something of an outsider: a convert who, at times, had a complex relationship with the Church. Though orthodox, she was troubled by what she perceived to be the Vatican’s failure officially to condemn the Nazi regime. She faced criticism from within the Church for stubborn pacifism and early sympathy with the Communist cause, though she – unlike many of her closest friends – was never a party member. Day herself was uncomfortable with insinuations that she was especially holy…Day opened houses of hospitality…in response to the needs of hungry, destitute people who showed up at her door. There are still currently nearly 250 Catholic Worker houses in America and worldwide. – Let’s Not Canonize Dorothy Day by Hannah Glickstein [because to do so would be a “demotion.”]

Back to the story that caught my attention. Aaron Damiani writes:

I’m reminded of a critical moment in the life of Dorothy Day, the journalist turned founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. After the birth of her daughter Tamar, she wished to leave behind her bohemian, hedonistic life for the Christian faith of her childhood. But the love of her life, Forster, forbade it:

It got to the point where it was the simple question of whether I chose God or man. I chose God and I lost Forster. I was baptized on the Feast of The Holy Innocents, December 28, 1927. It was something I had to do. I was tired of following the devices and desires of my own heart, of doing what I wanted to do, what my desires told me to do, which always seemed to lead me astray. The cost was the loss of the man I loved. [This paragraph quotes Dorothy Day, emphasis mine.]

This pivotal act of self-denial and obedience led to many smaller ones in an imperfect yet luminous life of love and mercy. Like Day, we must in the end take up our cross in daily defiance of the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Strangely, the way of death becomes for us the very path of life. – Aaron Damiani, Live Like a Christian, Even if You’re Not Sure What You Believe, Christianity Today, July/August 2024

Jesus was clear:

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9.23, 24, ESV)