Week 47—Thursday John 12:24-26
John 12:24-26
Week 47—THURSDAY
“A CORN OF WHEAT AFRAID TO DIE”
There is only one Sin—the Sin of making yourself God—the rest are sins. There is only one Loneliness—the Loneliness of being alone with an unsurrendered self. Geoffery Bull in his book, When Iron Gates Yield, says in his narrative of his experience in the lonely life of Tibet: “He had appointed me to stand in solitude upon the threshold of crisis, yet the only loneliness I had need to fear was that of a corn of wheat afraid to die.”
“A corn of wheat afraid to die”—that is the deepest loneliness. A minister was prominent and useful. He sat with a prominent layman and talked about becoming a bishop. He was divided. He wanted to be “a big shot,” and he wanted to be useful. This conflict divided and disrupted him. His wife left him. He “located” voluntarily, and now he lives in the big house alone—terribly alone. He was “a corn of wheat afraid to die.”
When the grain of wheat decides to die it begins to truly live. Mrs. Nobu Jo as a young woman went out to the hills surrounding Kobe and spent three days and nights in prayer trying to find God’s will for her life. At the close of the three days and nights of vigil she came down with inner clarity—she belonged to the discouraged and beaten people who were committing suicide at a certain place in the bend of railway where people threw themselves over the cliff. She put up a sign: “Don’t. See Mrs. Nobu Jo first. God is love,” giving her address. When I asked her how many people she had actually saved from suicide she replied, “We have a record of 5,000. And a further record of 65,000 who might have committed suicide if we hadn’t helped them.” When I asked her when she was ninety-two what was the secret of her life she replied, “Full surrender to God and having him always with me.” The grain of wheat fell into the ground and died—and yet how abundantly she lived. The secret: “Self-surrender.”
Dear God, I thank you that you have shown me the way. We see clearly for you have walked the way before us. So I follow in the steps of the consistent God. And in doing so I catch your joy. And what a Joy! Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My only enemy—the unsurrendered self; my only open door—surrender that self.