"Few of us are so spiritually advanced that we can accept the crosses we are given in simple obedience, as a spiritual discipline. We usually all resist the cross at first. We become so worn down, so flattened out, so drained of energy and emptied of fight that the only thing left is to accept.
The cross is, above all, a place of powerlessness. Here is the final proof that our feeble powers can no more alter life's trajectory than a magnet can pull down the moon. Here is the death of the ego, of the self that insists on being in charge, the self that continually tries to impose its own idea or order and righteousness on the world.
But once again, the cross is a place of contradiction. For the powerlessness of the cross, if fully embraced, takes us to a place of power. This is THE GREAT MYSTERY at the heart of Christian faith. . .THE MYSTERY OF THE POWER OF POWERLESSNESS. Or is it such a mystery after all? As long as I am preoccupied with the marshalling of my own feeble powers, there will be no way for God's power to flow through me. As long as I am getting in my own way, I cannot live
in the power of God's way.
Here is how Paul speaks of this moment of acceptance in Jesus' crucufixion and our own: 'In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus: his state was divine, and yet he did not cling to His equality with God but emptied Himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as we are; and being as all men are He was humbler yet, even to ACCEPTING death, death on a cross.' Phili 2:5-7."
- The Promise of Paradox by Parker J Palmer
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2 comments:
Dear Pst:
We can even be highly disciplined and yet resist the cross and all that it demands, especially in youth. Raised to believe in the Perfection and Holiness (Divine) of Jesus, we become discouraged by the reminder that there will never be another one perfect. This is not an excuse to sin, but it makes us aware of our humanity and keeps us "a little lower than the angels". Then we find ourselves being taught to ask, "Who's in charge? Am I a leader or a follower? The World teaches us not to submit, but to blaze a trail, to pioneer a new pathway, but God! --Has already made a way,and once we accept defeat, we return to the honor of what we learned from the beginning and may have even discarded as passe, and this time, a little older and wiser, according to God's grace, we do not depart. Me, I was "hogtied"! Thanks for the entry, it got me thinking.
Revised: I had to die to sin, I had to die to self. I had to make some right choices. I had to give up, shut up, and acquiesce. I had to surrender. All of this cold cruel treatment led me to the Cross. I was treated shamefully, betrayed, etc, and I shared in Christ's sufferings, wearing the crown of thorns. Then I began to suspicion that the spirit of the Anti-Christ was here, that Christ's sacrifice, although complete and all sufficient, was being transposed in my life to the dreaded brokenness and welcome-mat existence I now live. And I now have more than ever before. As soon as you give up your life, God gives you one, one that works, one that has real names and real life, not some reasonable facsimile...Where else can I go? All routes, roads, and trails have already been traveled! I know I'm on the path of life, that although I am struck in the face with the deadly sins of my past, I will not be moved. God willing, I will never turn away, according to God's grace! TR
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