kick in the pants
During my planning today I was reading from one of my favorite authors, Elisabeth Elliot's Discipline: The Glad Surrender. This passage nearly brought me to my knees and tears to my eyes:
His giving up of the glory to which His divine nature entitles Him seems to me perhaps the most incredible part of His humiliation. His obedience enabled Him to do anything, anything at all would please the Father, without thought of "how it would look." He who had known the ceaseless worship of angels came to be a slave to men. Preaching, teaching, healing the sick, and raising the dead were parts of His ministry, of course, and the parts we might consider ourselves willing to do for God if that is what he asked. He could be seen to be God in those. But Jesus also walked miles in dusty heat. He healed, and people forgot to thank Him. He was pressed and harried by mobs of exigent people, got tired and thirsty and hungry, was "tailed" and watched and pounced upon by suspicious, jealous, self-righteous religious leaders, and in the end was flogged and spat on and stripped and had nails hammered through His hands. He relinquished the right (or the honor) of being publicly treated as equal with God.
As I read this, my self-pity became evident to me. The Savior of the Universe lived a life that would be looked down on, even mocked, by many; yet here I am complaining because I have no money or gas. I'm not saying that I'm super glad to be in the circumstance that I am in, but I am saying that my attitude about it is unnecessarily winy.
My stinky attitude has been a reflection of my spiritual nature. Lately my spiritual blood sugar has been low. When my physical body's blood sugar is low, I become disoriented, can't prioritize, become overly emotional...this is mirrored in my spiritual nature.
Today started off kinda rough, I felt crippled by my inability to improve my situation and was riddled with worry about how I was gonna make ends meet without money. Upon reading that passage, my perspective changed; I realized how little my problem is, even to me, and how great God is. He had no pillow to lay His precious head, yet He didn't complain. He was treated like crap, yet He poured grace and mercy to the unlovely of society. I am entitled to nothing good, yet He provides so much good for me. If I'm to follow the footsteps of my Savior, I'm to learn to humbly and obediently pick up my cross and carry it.
His giving up of the glory to which His divine nature entitles Him seems to me perhaps the most incredible part of His humiliation. His obedience enabled Him to do anything, anything at all would please the Father, without thought of "how it would look." He who had known the ceaseless worship of angels came to be a slave to men. Preaching, teaching, healing the sick, and raising the dead were parts of His ministry, of course, and the parts we might consider ourselves willing to do for God if that is what he asked. He could be seen to be God in those. But Jesus also walked miles in dusty heat. He healed, and people forgot to thank Him. He was pressed and harried by mobs of exigent people, got tired and thirsty and hungry, was "tailed" and watched and pounced upon by suspicious, jealous, self-righteous religious leaders, and in the end was flogged and spat on and stripped and had nails hammered through His hands. He relinquished the right (or the honor) of being publicly treated as equal with God.
As I read this, my self-pity became evident to me. The Savior of the Universe lived a life that would be looked down on, even mocked, by many; yet here I am complaining because I have no money or gas. I'm not saying that I'm super glad to be in the circumstance that I am in, but I am saying that my attitude about it is unnecessarily winy.
My stinky attitude has been a reflection of my spiritual nature. Lately my spiritual blood sugar has been low. When my physical body's blood sugar is low, I become disoriented, can't prioritize, become overly emotional...this is mirrored in my spiritual nature.
Today started off kinda rough, I felt crippled by my inability to improve my situation and was riddled with worry about how I was gonna make ends meet without money. Upon reading that passage, my perspective changed; I realized how little my problem is, even to me, and how great God is. He had no pillow to lay His precious head, yet He didn't complain. He was treated like crap, yet He poured grace and mercy to the unlovely of society. I am entitled to nothing good, yet He provides so much good for me. If I'm to follow the footsteps of my Savior, I'm to learn to humbly and obediently pick up my cross and carry it.
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