misery.” – Matthew Arnold (poet)
Hmmm….he who finds himself, loses his misery……
Somehow that really hasn’t quite worked out for me.
I have “found myself” in the past and when I have I ended up by God’s grace
realizing it was best to lose myself. Why? Because my “self” as God revealed
it to me was not someone I wanted to hang out with. If you are recall the
writings of Paul in Romans 7 he shared a similar truth:
“18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the
desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not
do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to
do…. “(Romans 7:18-19)
Yep, as I look back on my “self” and the things that my self pursued
…..not so good.
Even to this day I have these inclinations of my self that just pop-up and
are opposed to the Spirit of God who is in me and those inclinations…..not
so good.
As a matter of fact, I want to share two passages that come to mind that
seem to be a walk down memory lane for me when my self(ish) was on the move:
“20For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to
righteousness. 21 What fruit did you reap at that time from the things
you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things
is death.” (Romans 6:20-21)
And my life verses:
” 3At one time we too were foolish,
disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.
We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
4But when the kindness and love of God
our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not
because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved
us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
6whom he poured out on us generously
hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3-7
Maybe it’s me (although I doubt it) but when I have found myself, and gone
along with its promptings I have found my misery.
No, there is a better way and Jesus has called us to it:
33Turning and looking at His disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get
behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the
things of men.” 34 Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His
disciples, and He told them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 35For whoever wants to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel
will save it….
The thing is this isn’t just a philosophy of life. God reveals that it is
true when, by the power of His Holy Spirit we walk with the Spirit and then
find that the true life, the abundant life, the life that God calls us to
can actually be lived. This is not a life by any means that it necessarily
free from pain or hardship but the misery that comes from pursuit of our
self(ish) is gone and God is glorified. Can we live in obedience to God all
the time? Of course not. Our self will keep pushing its way in, but by God’s
grace we will have less and less of this misery.
I’m sure Matthew Arnold was well intentioned and could explain the merits of
his words to me quite well but anytime I hear a call to finding ourselves
and being ourselves I get nervous. I have had enough of all that and I would
rather find much more of Jesus.
For Him,