Monday, September 17, 2012

Today’s text

Mark 9:35

So he [Jesus] sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.'

Reflection

I don’t think this is quite true. I do not think we can make ourselves servants of all, transcending our culture’s fascination with winning and being number one.

Letting go of the need to make much of ourselves for others to admire is a lifelong occupation, and we cannot do it alone.

Every child is born into the world hungry for connection, for food and shelter, for love and belonging. We each belonged in our mother’s womb only to be separated, cast out, never ceasing to need intimate connection with a love that nestles and feeds us, warms and assures us that we are wanted and belong.

When family and friends, home and school fail to provide such safety and esteem we seek it in other ways, trying to get others to look at us--to see and admire us so we know we are important, that we matter.

In a culture that celebrates individual achievement as much as ours, we seek to excel, to do something, almost anything, that will make people take notice and validate our life, our value, our existence.

Only quiet souls, souls who know they are loved and treasured can look beyond the burning need within and surrender to others, giving themselves to each moment, gifting it with their presence.

Their inner need is at rest, stilled and at peace by the inner knowledge of Love that tells them they have nothing to prove.

The inner Voice of Love says more. Again and again it, whispers the awareness that the truly valuable thing we need to do is to be ourselves, giving that self to each moment.

For each of us is a unique expression of the One Love who made us as a partial expression of God, the Eternal Wonder who always is and is always Love.

Listen to the Voice, and be what you are, who you are, where you are. Do not seek to win, to impress or gain more attention than that which easily and naturally comes through the simple sharing of what is in you.

Breathe and know. You are enough, for the Eternal Wonder is in you seeking expression in ways only you can offer.

The beauty of your life is the beauty of the Life who is in you. Trust it. It is enough for you simply to share that which you are, for the life you bear is the life of the One who is Beauty Itself.

Pr. David L. Miller