Friday, October 23, 2015

Autumn Leaves and Dying to Self

Recently I read a devotional that made the observation that all the brilliant colored leaves of autumn are beautiful because the leaves are dying.1 When leaves are alive, they are green with chlorophyll and able to feed the tree through photosynthesis. The chlorophyll departs are they die, and the leave display the bright fall colors beneath.
The Christian life is all about dying. Jesus said that all who wish to be his disciple must take up their cross daily and follow him (Luke 9:23). This is a radical call to die to self-interest, since the cross was a gruesome instrument of torture and execution. In baptism, we are united with Christ in death and buried with him (Romans 6:4-5). Our life is no longer our own. We are dead and our life if hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). “I have been crucified with Christ,” writes Paul in Galatians 2:20. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Dying, however, is not bad news. Like the autumn leaves dying, our death to self is freeing and truly glorious. The more I decrease, the more ablaze I become with the brilliant color of Christ. Indeed, the more I die to self-focus, the more the genuine “I”—created in the image of God—can shine through.
This autumn as I have seen all the beautiful leaves, I have thought many times about dying to self so that God’s blazing light can shine through me. Am I ablaze in like them for God’s glory—brilliant in color as I die to myself?
1. Gregory Polan in Give us This Day (October 2015).

© 2015 Glenn E. Myers

Friday, October 9, 2015

Listening to God's Voice


“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27, ESV).
Today let me listen to the voice of the Lord. God
God invites us to listen. From every street corner Wisdom calls (Proverbs 1:20). With voices that use no words, the heaven declare the Lord’s glory (Psalm 19) and all creation makes clear the divine attributes of the Creator (Romans 1:20). Ultimately, the Eternal Word speaks forth God’s fathomless love.
© 2015 Glenn E. Myers