The Entry-Point

Cudos to the Kingdomtide Reader from Asbury this fall; it has been helpful in my quiet time each morning. Some excerpts from this morning's devotion are difficult to really digest, but very true.

"Anyone who intends to come with me must let me lead. Don't run from suffering, embrace it."

"They are difficult words, but they are the entry-point to the Kingdom. It is in self-denial, in considering others better than ourselves, that we truly live...(because) through the conflict of our self interests we will destroy one another."

The idea here is not to find creative and unique ways to hurt ourselves or make ourselves miserable; it is not suffering for suffering's sake. Rather, those who try to keep their lives by hoarding the positive somehow wind up with their own little kingdom bereft of life and love. Those who share the positive in ever-increasing ways enter into the kindom of life and love.

One problem is that there is a competing kingdom - the world - with values counter to the Kingdom of Heaven. This counter-kingdom screams for us to lead our own lives, to eliminate suffering, to obtain power, pleasure and self-security. It, like Peter's response to Jesus' announcement that he must suffer and die, tells us that self-denial and love of others is flat out insane...maybe even stupid.

Finally, this line; "we should first learn to live our lives with the Lord in secret, and learn the lesson of love while we sit at his feet. Then let us go love and serve our fellow-beings as we love our own selves." This is the key to self-denial - to be so filled with the truth of God's love, grace and acceptance that we don't need to earn value or seek the praise of others. It protects us from self-denial for self's sake. We love and serve out of an overflow of love rather than mustering up our own altruism.