Day 59 - Issue 23
Luke 2:7 NLT
'She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.'
When I worked as an executive for a Christian organisation, I developed airs and graces that I gave myself due to my perception of my position. It was an easy one, for I worked with a charity that paid my salary and expenses, no questions asked, and never required me to consider the challenge of making the business work.
I undoubtedly did much good. Yet, I allowed myself to believe my own publicity. As a result I developed a definite swagger. Humility wasn’t a recognisable element. I wasn't alone here. I observed what I now describe as an indulgence that accompanied the life of a senior leader and the firewall I and others in similar roles maintained between our private and public personas.
Jesus is born in a forgettable location, without the safeguards we associate with birth, away from the comforts of home and the assurances of family. Mary who had said yes to God might have felt she was entitled to slightly better treatment at his hands. Yet, such circumstances reinforced the nature of the holy family’s calling in general and Jesus’ in particular. It was to be one of vulnerability and simplicity, always subject to misunderstanding and a challenge to realise.
Losing my footing on the senior leadership ladder was, in part, self-inflicted. I could no longer perform to what was to me the tune of my false self. I felt hollow and recognised I had betrayed the values seeded into my soul at the time of conversion. I crashed to earth with a bump, in need of reconstruction. I appealed to God who took me to an anonymous stable, away from public scrutiny, far from the applause of the crowd. Here I began to reconnect with the purpose of my new birth. Here I found both God and myself.
QUESTION: Are you at rest or restless knowing that there are uncomfortable compromises you have made in your following of Jesus?
PRAYER: Help me to have the same humility as the Lord Jesus had throughout his life from birth to death.
