This is a reflection I wrote during a quiet time today as I was remembering some interactions I had with students this past fall. I think it's inspiring and challenging to see how far our communities and relationships have come and how far they have yet to go until Jesus comes to restore all things.
My biggest beef with relationships I have and things (you know, material stuff) is that I don't want to give up anything I think I deserve - whether it's stuff, friendships, security, money, etc. The reality, though, is that we gave up our rights to ourselves (and any of those other things) when we decided to follow Jesus. It seems incredibly foolish from a worldly perspective. Why would we allow ourselves to become a doormat to other people? We will be abused and let down and disappointed (in addition to doing those things ourselves). But we can be "fools for God" because our value is held no longer in the view of the world or the esteem others give us - it is in the fact that we are beloved children of God. This knowledge alone should carry us and give us strength to lay down our lives on behalf of others even when they are undeserving, because we ourselves are undeserving of the love God has given us. And so when we are beaten down and taken advantage of, we can take comfort that there is a greater reward for our obedience and sacrifice than for the pride of preserving our own sense of dignity.
There is no dignity in the cross. Crucifixion was the most undignified thing that could happen to a person and yet Jesus went to it with the full knowledge of what he was doing. He went willingly. That's foolish. Yet, his desire to be obedient to His father's will led him to it. Led him to death itself - but on the other side of that death was new life and abundant life for those who would also lay down their lives in obedience to the Father's will. A life that comes from a willingness to sacrifice our own dignity before other people for the sake of loving them.
The Christian life is not about finding the most convenient ways for dealing with other people. It is about radical love - radical because the world (and myself) would call it foolish and offensive, but radical nonetheless because it would take all abuses to show that one is a beloved child of God. The beauty in this is not that we love perfectly, but that Jesus has demonstrated his perfect love to us undeserving people.
We are the very people we refuse to love because of how they have hurt us, and yet God has deemed us worthy of His own son's life so that he might know us for eternity. Are not other people then worthy of our own lives - the sacrifice of our pride, emotions, self-righteousness and dignity? The answer should be a resounding yes! But it rakes painfully against the very nature of who we are as humans. We are to value others as greater than ourselves. Love your enemies was not a command to simply withhold evil, but to esteem others as more worthy than ourselves - worthy of our very lives. If we do not, we deny the very love God shows to us in Jesus because we were once enemies of God, but have been brought near because of Jesus sacrifice of love on our behalf.
I have not come near to achieving this love in my own life, but I see how the Holy Spirit is at work in my heart. And I hope that in my relationships with others God will humble me to be undignified for His sake. So, may I be a doormat to others if in that I would be upon the entryway to God's Kingdom!
