In our narcissistic ethos...
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In our narcissistic ethos, a preoccupation with identity or the quest for self-consciousness and finding ourselves is a passion for many Americans (see Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, pp. 177-179; David Frum, How We Got Here: The 70s, esp. pp. 70ff). This lesson and the reformation word assure us that we already have an identity with the law written on our hearts. Spend your life looking for yourself or trying to become yourself, and you will never actually get to be yourself. Famed twentieth-century American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr makes a similar point about how we only get to be ourselves because God makes it happen: "We do not become unselfish by saying so. But thank God, there are forces in life and in history that draw us out of ourselves and make us truly ourselves. This is grace" (Justice & Mercy, p. 43).
Becoming yourself is a gift, happening paradoxically when you stop thinking about yourself and get focused on others. It is like happiness. You can't find it and make it happen; it happens as a happy (grace-filled) accident. Mahatma Gandhi was right: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
The real you and me is one with the Ten Commandments and good works written on our hearts. Doing good is something spontaneous, who we are, like a good athlete loves to play the game, like a great musician finds joy in playing music. This is what the first Reformer Martin Luther meant when he wrote: "All that the Christian does is nothing but fruit. Everything such a person does is easy for him. Nothing is arduous" (Luther's Works, Vol. 24, p. 230).
The reformation word of grace finds us and makes life a lot of fun.
Becoming yourself is a gift, happening paradoxically when you stop thinking about yourself and get focused on others. It is like happiness. You can't find it and make it happen; it happens as a happy (grace-filled) accident. Mahatma Gandhi was right: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
The real you and me is one with the Ten Commandments and good works written on our hearts. Doing good is something spontaneous, who we are, like a good athlete loves to play the game, like a great musician finds joy in playing music. This is what the first Reformer Martin Luther meant when he wrote: "All that the Christian does is nothing but fruit. Everything such a person does is easy for him. Nothing is arduous" (Luther's Works, Vol. 24, p. 230).
The reformation word of grace finds us and makes life a lot of fun.
