Week 47—Tuesday Matthew 20:25-27
Matthew 20:25-27
Week 47—TUESDAY
YOU CAN LOVE AND LIKE A CHRIST-CENTERED SELF
We continue our meditation on self-surrender in God and in people. I say in God and in people, for if God hadn’t done it first, God’s advice on the matter would be verbal—the Word become word. But since God has done it, the Word has become flesh; then when God speaks of it, it is out of experience. Our God is not a signpost pointing the way—God is a Shepherd who says, “Follow me”—and “goes before them.”
We said that if we surrender ourselves to God we can now accept and love ourselves; and we can do more—we can like ourselves. Rufus Moseley, a saint, used to say, “I like to talk to myself, for I like to listen to an intelligent person talking.” And if you had a self like his you would be glad to talk to it. I don’t blame some people for not talking to themselves—their selves are not very decent selves to talk to. But when you belong to Christ you really love and like yourself. Another point: You can express yourself, for you are now expressing Christ when you express yourself. “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21), and we may add, “For me to express myself is to express Christ.”
So the self is not lost when it is surrendered to Christ. It is lost in a higher will, redeemed from a self-centered will, and found again in obedience to that higher will. So it all ends in self-affirmation. The self is not canceled—it is heightened. I do not argue, I only testify. Before I gave myself to Jesus Christ, my self was a confused mess; but he took that mess and made it into a message! I was godless and goalless, then I had both God and goal. So self-renunciation means self-realization. The highest freedom—the freedom to surrender yourself to God, results in the highest freedom—the freedom to know God and yourself and life and everything. You are free indeed—free to live.
O Jesus Lord, you have opened the door to my highest freedom—opened it by introducing me to self-loving. You have introduced me to it not by a verbal introduction, but by walking through the door yourself. So I follow with the deepest joy. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I love myself in Christ—in him I am lovable—in myself I am not.