Thursday: Discover Your Own Perfection
WEEK 39
THURSDAY
DISCOVER YOUR OWN PERFECTION
Romans 7:21-25
There is another modern answer to the human dilemma, “What should we do?” It is the answer of so-called “new thought” in its various guises: “You don’t have to do anything. Just discover your latent resources; all the answers are within you. Discover yourself and in doing so you discover your own perfection, even your own divinity.” That answer is not new; it is as old as Vedantic Hinduism, and as morally powerless. It gives you an initial shot in the arm by an injection of overexpanded wordiness about infinite power and infinite perfection. But like all boosts not founded on fact, this boost ends in a bust, in a reaction of deflation as one bumps up against the realities of human living.
This emphasis on perfection and divinity within is a reaction against the worm-of-the-dust emphasis. But this reaction has created just as many problems. Humanity is neither a worm nor a wonder; humans are sinful beings with infinite possibilities through grace. That last—through grace—is important, for it gets your eyes off yourself and puts them on God. That breaks the tyranny of self-preoccupation and releases you from being self-centered. You are self-centered, even if you are occupied with discovering your own innate perfection or innate divinity. Anything that leaves you centered on yourself is off-center. It breaks the law of finding yourself by losing yourself. And that is fatal. All movements that live on grace live. All movements that live on self, even if they spell it with a capital—Self—perish. They simply don’t fit the facts.
We turn with relief from these half answers to the Christian answer, voiced by Peter, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 RSV). Is this the answer to the human dilemma, “What shall we do?” Or is it like a coin that has been in circulation so long that it is slick and smooth and without any distinctive characteristics? Is it outworn and outgrown? Or is it as up-to-date as tomorrow morning? It is eternal Freshness.
O God, your answers come from eternity and last for eternity, for they meet eternal needs. Help us as we begin the unfolding of your answer and help us to follow. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The answer people see in me shall be as fresh as the morning dew and as sparkling.