The Praktikos Test

If your heart does not accuse you,
Either for negligence
Or for harboring evil thoughts
Or for having rejected a commandment of God,
Then indeed you are pure of heart
And worthy to hear those words:
“Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they will see God.”

Theodoros the Ascetic

Today marks the end of the Praktikos articles and there could be no better quote to end on than this one. Praktikos is one of three steps in a traditional training program for spiritual leaders. It is mastering the basics.

For the spiritual leader, this training is focused on personal purity, wisdom, understanding and such. The goal is to present the person fully prepared and prove that preparation before they move toward leadership or even servanthood in any form.

We will later look at the second step, Theoretikos, but for now Theodoros gives us a simple and great test to see if we are ready to proceed. Perhaps you are contemplating leadership or evaluating your leadership. This test is as precious as gold.

§ Does your heart accuse you of any wrongdoing or weakness?

§ Do you have any evil thoughts?

§ Is your mind always controlled?

§ Are you rejecting a commandment of God?

If so, you will have trouble “seeing God” and are not ready to lead others to “see Him.” It is that simple. A leader who says, “I really have trouble with this but we should all do it,” is no leader at all. Worse than that, a leader who will not see God will most surely lead his people to hell.

Stop, check, move on or correct before moving on – the people are counting on it.