Egos about, everywhere,
One is mine, I need to
care,
God’s opportunity’s to
own who we are,
Our fallen nature’s never away too far.
TOO often we see it in others, but not enough in ourselves. Our egos are
the ending of us (and our relationships) so far as loving progress is
concerned. When we allow God to intervene in us, we become so focused on
repentance we have neither the time nor the inclination to judge.
Lord, highlight my ego in my
relationships, and give me the courage to deal with it as only I can – please.
AMEN.
Let’s go deeper...
Naming and shaming our pride – to pour contempt all over it – is the very
opportunity, the space, God needs to take our relationships to another level.
We can only ever get the fullness of the other person before us when we
give them the contrite fullness of us, ourselves.
If we won’t risk our egos – tossing them into the fire of hell where they
belong – they won’t risk their egos. We must be willing and courageous to go
with the leading of God and risk ‘our stuff’ in faith, and in the hope, that
they will.
Stripping Back to God
Stripping back our pride – smashing the ego on the rocks of
change – is getting us back to God. We do it in an instant. With no self-protection
availed to ourselves, we obliterate that which is, has been, and always will be
the relational barrier.
Stripping back to God is about being spiritually naked in the
safest of hands – in the full assurance of confidence (as we tell ourselves – ‘I
am safe’) – that this risk will be worth it. If it won’t work out right now, we must not get disheartened;
we keep doing it in faith – God always rewards us, eventually, for striding in
faith. And such a reward is abundantly and eternally worthwhile.
Stripping back to God is about getting away from the shadow
mission – the centralising of part of our lives on what
is unworthy, selfish or dark – and going into the cleansed territory of our
purpose for God.
Our purpose – in broad terms – is to
love our neighbours. We cannot do such a thing with egos enabled and operational.
We must not just park our egos, but name them and shame them.
***
When we allow God to intervene in us,
forgetting what is ‘wrong’ with them, we become so focused on repentance we
have neither the time nor the inclination to judge. Then there is a
relationship breakthrough; then there is the space needed to heal that which
has been broken.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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