Dealing With Your Inner Criticਨਮੂਨਾ

If you think about it, every belief we hold and every belief that has hold of us is a form of a gospel. When we think of the word ‘gospel’ we think, ‘Jesus’ or Christianity, but actually the very harsh Roman Empire also proclaimed a gospel, so as Jesus’ followers were proclaiming a gospel of Jesus, Rome was proclaiming its own Gospel. What is fascinating is that most gospels offer the same promise: peace. Jesus promises peace and Rome also offered peace. Their gospel, and yes, they called it a gospel was the Pax Romana which is Latin for the peace of Rome.

Every gospel has a path. You have to do something to get it. To get Roman peace, you had to allow Rome to conquer your village, kill your husbands, brothers and sons, and then throw a huge party in your town square once they had conquered you, celebrating their victory. Part of this celebration, or ‘triumphal procession’ was some of your village mates chained up, dragged at the back of the procession to their crucifixion or slavery or possibly to the gladiator games.

That is a gospel that is too expensive. It costs too much to get that peace and protection.

Every gospel has a price. Someone pays and someone benefits. In the Roman gospel, the majority of the people paid severely. Caesar and his cronies and some elites got all the benefit. Roman peace was elusive for 97% of the empire.

Your inner critic is more like the Roman gospel than it is like the Christian gospel. Your inner critic offers peace and protection, but it makes you pay and it doesn’t ever give the peace it promised. Your inner critic doesn’t make you walk a path, it keeps you stuck and trapped, condemned. No hope. No mercy.

Jesus’ gospel is utterly different from any other gospel in history. It is different from Rome and Greece before it, it is different from the Egyptian gospel that Moses and the Jews labored under. Jesus’ gospel is utterly different than the gospel of our inner critic.

Jesus walks the path, so we don’t have to. He walked the path all the way to Calvary, the tomb and ultimately back to the Father. And in Jesus’ gospel, we don’t pay, Jesus pays. In Jesus’ gospel, the God pays and the human gets the benefit. It can be difficult to believe because everything else in our world makes us pay for its benefit. Today, consider the promise your inner critic offers and if it is good for its promise. Consider who pays. Relax into the goodness of Jesus.