Into your hands
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Second Week of Lent
 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022713.cfm
Matthew 20:26-28
Jesus spoke to his quarreling disciples, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”
Worshipping Jesus easily distracts me from following him. Gazing at him on the cross reminds me of what he’s done for me and all of us, and I fall on my knees in gratitude.
Jesus himself, however, asks me to be aware of the Giver as well as the gift. This “love of God for God’s sake” seems impossible when I’m thinking about me. So Paul’s paean to Jesus in Philippians 2:7 becomes a model: “He made himself nothing by taking the nature of a servant.”
I don’t think we’re left in the dark about how to do this. Doesn’t Jesus show us how? Jesus models a simple synthesis of contemplation and action, of worship and work. Pray in silence, waiting for God, every morning every day. And then help an old man across the street. Ask a stranger if I can pray for her. Look up. Look up. And then look right into the eyes of the one I’m with.
By definition, I cannot “empty” myself. The false self can’t kill the false self. Einstein said that we can’t solve a problem using the same kind of thinking that created it. This is a basic truism of scientific exploration, and of spiritual growth as well.
What I can do is put myself in position to be emptied, by spending time with God, with the Trinity. And then move into the Presence of others.
In this way I discover patience, a singular fruit of relationship with the Holy Spirit. Patience, as defined by Albert Haase, is “the deliberate, measured response of an accepting person to a situation as it unfolds on its own.”
And then the foot-washing becomes as natural as breathing.
Into your hands I commend my spirit. You will redeem me, O Lord, O faithful God. Let the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to you. Establish the work of my hands.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1152
