After the shame of earned defeat,
after losing the one thing held dear,
the honest person asks,
the desperate person asks,
“How do I become credible, again?”
This question requires answering with every new beginning in our lives, in the life of a nation and in the life of all humankind in those moments when at wits’ end we step out from the mental death of shame and defeat back into the life God has given us so we may feel our way toward Him, seek after Him and find Him, again.
Who believes we can do this? Who makes us believable again? Upon whose resources do we rely to live beyond ourselves to be ourselves again? Who do we want to be? Who among us tires of being the freedom fighter fighting for a noble cause, or being the systematic inquisitor and finder of all causes? Who wants to see and act like the compassionate Samaritan, even if it means being branded a traitor or being dismissed a silly dreamer? Who speaks out of the hour’s opportunity and need, even if it means being made a martyr? Who will be the weak man or unnoticed woman who can be the strength of God when the need of another is great?[i]
The One among us who believes in us, who believes, “Every soul is the next sentence of God”[ii] — He is for us. He speaks for us. He is holy and blameless, and unstained by sin. He lives forever to plead with God on our behalf. He is Lord over all. He alone was born that night in Bethlehem, to be found by shepherds, a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of common cloth. He alone glorifies God in the highest heaven. He alone will bring peace on earth and goodwill among the Jews and the nations.
Who is this Savior? Even apart from the Spirit that reveals everything, the living Jesus, the Jesus of the four Gospels and Giver of history remains most plausibly, the most single-mindedly sincere and spontaneously, the most authentic man ever to have embraced life through death. In Him alone is the Father well pleased. We should listen to Him. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
Make it a resolution this year to pray that your shame be made full without fear or hardness of heart. Pray for your unconditional defeat, that the deceit of self-sufficiency be exposed and its desire for you be completely undone. Pray the miracle of His sorrow living and working within you changes your mind about Him. Pray He removes the one thing in your life that keeps you from turning to Him. Pray you never turn away from daily reliance on Him. Then, like Job did for his friends, pray for us, that He lets us come to our senses; who still feed at the trough of petty victories. Pray He frees us of our vanity, breaks us of our idolatry, and runs with arms open to receive us as His own, as we approach Him broken, heads bowed, ashamed and coming home to Him in utter defeat, having heard Him cry out to us by name, with a loud voice saying, “Come out!”
Lord, grant we might in behalf of one another offer up prayers of GOLD:
Glory, Obedience, Loyalty, Deliverance!
May our lives radiate Your glory in the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grant us obedience from the heart to that standard of teaching to which You have commended us, so that as Your messengers we may be competent, equipped with sound doctrine for every good work and for the healthy growth and godly governance of the church.
Grant us loyalty to our first love, Jesus Christ, and to the name He has given us.
And finally Father, allow deliverance from whatever keeps us from living the gift of eternal life, which You have given us through faith in our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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notes
[1] Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Ja und Nein, Auto-Biographische Fragmente, ed. by Georg Müller (Heidelberg: Verlag Lambert Schneider, 1968), p.81, paraphrases emmeshed in first two paragraphs, pp. 82-83.
[ii] Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “Der Endgültige Mensch,” in Die Sprache des Menschengeschlechts, vol. 1 (Heidelberg: Verlag Lambert Schneider, 1963), p. 144.
Every academic or public library should have the collected works of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy now available on DVD. Go to http://www.argobooks.org/collected/index.html for aquisition information. The collection is reasonably priced, thus easily obtainable for individual purchase.
amen!