The Way Up Is DownSample

One Degree of Glory to Another

On this side of heaven, we constantly examine ourselves and decide whether we really want to go Jesus’ way and surrender all control of the outcomes to God.

Maybe like Peter, we make grand promises at the beginning, tell Jesus that we’ll go to any lengths for him, follow him anywhere, and that we’d die for him. And then, when push comes to shove and life doesn’t turn out the way we want it to—when we finally realize what is at stake—we backpedal. We swear up and down that we don’t know Jesus or what he is about or that it would require so much of us. We continue in this vein until some rooster in the distance shocks us awake to the reality of things, and then we are beside ourselves with sorrow and self-recrimination.

Or maybe our initial reaction is to run away (or want to run away) from it. We’re Jonahs, hopping aboard the first ship to Tarshish. We’re bound and determined that our will be done.

There’s always surrender to humiliation and crucifixion, an emptying, before the glory. There’s no way around it. Emptiness comes before fullness. We have to empty ourselves of anything that crowds out the life or grace of God in our lives. When we cooperate with the Spirit in this way, we become receptacles of grace. We are rich toward God and others. Filled full.

Father Stephen Freeman, an Eastern Orthodox priest, writes, “If we are to be transformed ‘from one degree of glory to another’ then it is towards the ‘glory’ of the crucified, self-emptying Christ that we are being transformed. . . . For there is no other kind of life revealed to us in Christ.” Crucifixion and self-emptying—there is no other kind of Christian life. This is the life God calls us to. And it takes practice. It takes God’s strength.

We are not alone in pursuing the selfless way, the God-shaped life.

Prayer:

God, you are with me wherever I go. Thank you for your patience and love on my worst days. Help me remember your call to live for you, and only for you. Fill me and transform me daily. Amen.