Wednesday: I Do Not Account My Life of Any Value, If only . . .
WEEK 14
WEDNESDAY
I DO NOT ACCOUNT MY LIFE OF ANY VALUE, IF ONLY . . .
John 16:32-33
We ended yesterday on the note that these men and women in the Acts were no longer problems to themselves; they were possibilities. They got this way, not by reducing their selves to a vegetable and then calling it victory, but by surrendering themselves to Someone beyond themselves. The moment they did so, they became self-aggressive. It was not an egoistic aggression ending in disruption but an aggression of love ending in a higher harmony. They were not going around apologizing for themselves or despising themselves or suppressing themselves. They accepted themselves—in God, loved themselves—in God, projected themselves—in God, found themselves—in God.
This passage sums up the mastery of self in an acute life situation:
I am going to Jerusalem bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:22-24 RSV)
Note this illuminating portion: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry.” Paul’s self was neither of value nor precious to him except in relation to the cause with which he had identified himself. There you find the secret of self-mastery. He was surrendered to and hence loyal to a cause beyond himself; hence his self dropped into the place for which it was made and became happy and adjusted and free and amazingly useful.
There is no other way to self-mastery. Everything else is an illusion and a snare and ends in a road with a dead end, whether it be religious, psychological, or plainly secular. The Holy Spirit cleansed their selves from selfishness, not merely by abiding within them in order to keep their selves in check, but by dedicating those very selves to the love of Christ and the purposes of the kingdom.
O Christ, I thank you that the way is open—upward. I offer all myself and all the powers of that self to you. Take it, make it, and break it to the multitudes. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I do not account my life of any value, if only I can make it witness to God today.