Watch for Lights!

I find it interesting that we are so full of ourselves. We get on our royal high horses and we charge off into parts unknown, with a cockiness that could stop a clock. Now don't get me wrong, I singing this song to myself. I think the differences comes when we realize we're doing it, cuz then it can be changed. It's a pretty humbling event when it does happen, all of a sudden we start to understand what God's grace is all about. Once again I stand up and say, "I'm glad God is God and you and I aren't!"


A big part of what I've been learning this past year revolves around emptying self so that there is some room in me for filling up. I can remember times saying, Come Holy Spirit and fill me so I can over flowing! I can hear the Spirit say, And where would you have me fill you! Maybe your hands, if you would but cup them? This really has been a hard lesson for me, yet I'm finding that the hard ones are the good ones. 


How do we go about de-throning our false selfs? It has got to be seen as a process, and not a fast one at that. I would think if it was something we could do over night, we wouldn't really have a lot to do for the rest of our lives. But God, being God, is patience and kind with us and gives us about 80 years to get this down. A word that Underhill uses is mortification. It's the practice of self denial by discipline to overcome desire for sin and to strengthen the will.  It's also what happens when gangrene sets in and a part of your body dies off while the rest lives. It's not pretty or fun, but when it happens, the burden becomes lighter.


What we are looking for are moments of transformation within ourselves. They are Aha moments that shed light on our false darkness, that we have grown so fond of. The action we take when the light goes off on the dashboard of our soul, is to save us. It's likened to the service engine soon light in our cars. Ignore it, and you'll be replacing something, and you can bet it'll be costly! When the light goes off, we take action, it's also called repentance. 


We all have these light on the dashboard of our soul, some folks keep a newspaper over them so they don't have to look at them, but they know it's there and they know when they go off. These lights go off in all areas of our lives, not just our  Sunday go to meeting lives. In our personal, professional and political lives as well. We think that God wants us to be better religious folks, when He wants us to be better humans, all around! So we need to let the Spirit into ALL of our lives. Harper says it best when he reminds us that Salvation means wholeness, not just going to heaven when you die! As we dare to become whole, we make room for the of the Holy Spirit. That might have been why John the Baptist said I must decrease, He must increase!