Day: November 14, 2007

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Its All About Me

me“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”Philippians 2:1-8

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Luke 9:23

The verse is Philippians snatches the rug out from under my natural “Me-ology.”  Jesus was not like us Americans!  He did not think equality was the highest value in life!  For Him the highest good–the greatest joy was found in emptying Himself for the sake of others.  He did not demand that it be all about Him–even though in reality it is!

As Paul describes the self giving attitude of Christ, he invites us to consider a value that he says leads to complete joy…having the same mind and the same love as Christ.

“I am personally convinced that this submission, this dying to self, this crucifying of pride is crucial to our joy.  We think of denying self as somber, grim-faced business when it is in truth a prelude to dancing.

The reason our death [to self] increases the joy level all around is that it also increases the love level all around.

Only when we die to self can we fully love another.

Self is a devilish creature, demanding all of our energy, wanting our constant attention, reaching even into our pocketbooks for favors.

How can we ever hope to be attuned to another when self screams for our constant care?

When self is alive and well, it offers us an all-or-nothing proposition.

We either pacify self, or crucify it!”

Judson Edwards

Pathway to joy is the pathway that goes from “Me-ology” to “Thee-ology!”

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God Grew Tired of Us

Over the weekend our family rented the documentary “God Grew Tired of Us.”  It is the story of 3 of the “lost boys” of Sudan who were resettled in America.  1203281 These were boys who had survived incredible challenges and who had grown up in Kakuna refugee camp in Kenya.  The “lost boys” were children who fled Sudan by the thousands when many of them were just toddler age. Their journey was as compelling as it was disturbing.  Marching over a thousand miles in search of sanctuary when the civil war broke out in their land, about half of the 27,000 died on the journey.

The young men in this documentary–Panther, Daniel and John allowed the cameras to see the challenges of relocation.  The boys felt guilty for having food when they knew their brothers in Kenya were still starving.  they felt selfish living well when their friends were living without. These emotions prompted them to send some of their meager earnings back to friends and family in Africa.

They longed for the deep sense of interdependence and community that had sustained them for all their years in the refugee camps.  They experienced hurt and confusion when Americans allowed  busyness and their desire for independence and privacy to overrule expressions of kindness and caring.  They were enormously grateful for the opportunity to have a new life but baffled at how much “life” they lost when the bonds of deep relationships had to be severed in the move to America.

“ After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing near the throne and in front of the Lamb.”  Revelation 7:9

6067 (Small) It seems tragic to me that there are people in the world who feel forgotten by God, or think that they have become tiresome to Him.

How will we represent the Lord so that their vision of Him can be set right?

It is not God who has tired of these brothers and sisters in Africa–or who ignores the results of wars that continue to displace thousands— it is us.

“But Zion said, ‘I don’t get it.  God has left me.  My Master has forgotten I even exist.’

‘Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? 

But even if mothers forget, I’d never forget you—never.  Look I have written your names on the backs of my hands. 

The walls you’re rebuilding are never out of my sight…You’ll know then that I am GOD.  No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.”

Isaiah 49:14-23  The Message