Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Light on the path

Monday, February 25, 2013

Luke 6:37
Jesus said to his disciples, "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned."

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022513.cfm

I don't know about yours. I do know that my mind is a crowded city of tangled back alleys and dead ends, with very few thoroughfares. It is a maze, not a labyrinth, and exploration is difficult, frustrating and eventually terrifying. I often don't see what is coming just around the next corner, and then suddenly I am filled with judgment, or even condemnation.

Of course these statements of my false self aim themselves at others, for a moment. Then they turn back on me. Paul's words echo again, "What a wretched man I am." The corners where I'm caught smell so familiar: poor-me-martyrdom, self-righteousness, resentment, ungodly sorrow, "cheap" grace, resignation. So much self-protection, but I am protecting nothing at all except my own image of myself. Mirror upon faulty mirror.

Introspection like this doesn't end easily, and it doesn't brighten up much when the sun comes out. The back alleys are covered up with old memories and patterns, and they block the sky. When I start traveling down these littered lanes, I get confused, then scared, and finally lost. If this is anything like what happens to you, no wonder we think we need a rescue from the sky. God sees things very differently from me. I have one viewpoint, but he sees everything from everywhere. He is All in all.

But most of the supposed Rescuers from the sky turn us into something other than what we are. We become puppets, or little children not allowed to grow up, or independents entirely on our own. We are as likely as ever to be lost, even when we think we're found.

Jesus doesn't rescue like other "gods." Not from the sky, and not by and by. He comes to me where I am, and he looks into my eyes. He is not afraid. He asks me to join him in the walk. "Follow me," Jesus says.

So God enters our mumble-jumble-macaroni-tangled world and becomes us, and then invites us to become "part of him." The Orthodox call this "theosis," all of us call it salvation. A mysterious way appears in the maze of my caught-up thinking. It wasn't there before ... or rather, it was always there and I was blind.

In this new sight, acceptance replaces judgment. No hurry, God is good. Patience with others, and especially with myself, takes root. All things work together, in me and all around me, in us and all around us. We are all God's lilies.

Lord, your voice is faint and then it's clear: stop walking and stand. Wait. Look at me, and follow me, and come to know yourself. There is no fear here in love. I will show you how.

Devotions Archive

Light on the path

Monday, February 25, 2013