Sometimes I write Newsletters and then forget to tell you the point of what I wrote. It happens! For example, HERE.
Also, HERE I said I would tell you the point of this Newsletter LATER, but then I got busy swimming at the lake and laughing with friends, and I forgot I’d ever written anything!
It happens!
However, I recently startled us all (Myself included – I forgot this stuff!) with the realization in this Newsletter that we are all only a couple of steps from walking off the cliff edge of privilege into destitution if we’re honest.
I wrote that I was shocked how quickly I transformed from polite, smiling tourist to a filthy street kid desirously plotting to murder a destitute child.
It happens!
You’re also only a few steps from falling off the cliff of polite, civilized person to a mauling, violent being, too, I challenge HERE.
But the fact that our kindness is a façade produced by our privilege is also a good thing, it turns out.
What if the fact that you generally show the quality of being “nice” is simply due to the reality of having enough food to eat, a place to sleep tonight and relationships to help you out in a pinch?
Who would you become, too, if these luxuries were suddenly removed?
What do we do when we face the reality that our civilized pedantic behavior is only skin deep?
Who do we turn to when we realize who we really are?
And therein lies our hope.
“The prayer preceding all prayers is ‘May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.'”
When we come to God holding up layers of masquerade masks in front of our faces, or as a house with several façades shoddily built in front of us, and we ask to meet with Him, we have trouble drawing close. The lies we tell ourselves, and even lies we think are the truth, are like an electromagnetic force, pushing us away from Jesus. However, He is drawn like an object towards a black hole wherever there is truth.
“ . . . we must consider in depth who we are, and we will find ourselves worthy of all scorn . . .”
Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God
Reflecting on moments like who I became when I was stripped of the privilege I routinely take for granted, and wondering if you would feel the same (You would), is the beginning of this tearing down of the self to find who we really are.
And so, in summary, the point of this Newsletter is to gently point out that you’re a jerk! It happens! But that’s good news, friend!
Why is this good news?
And what do we do when we are faced with the terrifying reality of who we really are, deep down?
We open our eyes.
Jesus is sitting next to you, drinking coffee, and waiting for you to wake up so you can finally see Him sitting next to you, patiently waiting.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
As the song below plays, consider taking deep breaths, quieting yourself and then asking God, “How do you see me? How is that picture different from how I see myself? What is one step I can make to align my thinking with who You say I am?”
And may you blossom into His most incredible vision of who you truly are, by the power of His transforming love, friend.
Photo Credit: A Gift! by Ionela Mat on Unsplash
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!
Restoring Life 