The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself

by Marlena Graves

For once could the meek inherit the earth instead of being trampled on?”

Kenōsis is a voluntary self-emptying, a renunciation of my will in favor of God’s. It’s a life characterized by self-giving.

Jesus’ trust in our Father’s good will was tested over and over again. Our trust will be too.

When Jesus was circumcised, Mama Mary couldn’t even afford to offer a little lamb as a burnt offering, as the Mosaic law required her to do in the temple on the family’s behalf. Instead, she was only able to offer two turtle doves—the offering of the poor.

Show us salvation in smallness. Help us to be faithful to the small, daily work of hope and justice.

Christ is found in places and people not to my liking. My part in repentance is to stop the mental caricatures and dehumanization. The misrepresentations. Distortions. I have to stop despising them in my heart and like Eugene Peterson, begin “recycling my swords into plowshares.”

If I choose to go my own way in the thousand tiny decisions, thoughts, and behaviors that make up my life, I deal death blows to everyone and everything around me, including myself.