I'm reading "The relentless tenderness of Jesus" by Brennan Manning at the moment (INCREDIBLE book, by the way). I'm in the final section which is talking about Christmas.
"The contemplative at Christmas grows quiet before "the light [that] shines in the darkness" (John 1:5). He stills his soul and becomes tranquil like a child in its mother's arms. He interiorizes and appropriates to himself the mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation and love that are embodied in the Child of Bethlehem. He surrenders to the grace of the Word made flesh. He accepts acceptance."
I've never really thought of surrender in that way before. In my mind it's always been about surrendering to the Holy One, the sovereign Lord, the King of kings, the One on the throne, the one true God, the almighty God. In that place, surrender can be hard & motivated by fear. But surrender to grace...that's another thing altogether. Surrendering to grace is a willing response because of the extravagant goodness and love inherent in grace. Surrendering to the grace of the Word made flesh is LIFE. It's not sacrifice in a negative way. It's a step of faith, but is dependent on the goodness of God and on the beauty of the unity of grace and holiness, goodness and glory.
The other thing I've been thinking about recently has been individualism - partly because I'm an incredibly individualistic person & I'm realising more and more how individualism & faith in Jesus just don't go together.
One of my friends really challenged me about my individualism this week & got me thinking about some stuff. He asked me what I hear when I hear the expression "personal relationship with God". Do I hear "individual relationship with God" or do I hear "relationship with the person of God"? There's a massive difference. In relating to God in an individual way, it's all about me, I, my experience, etc. It ignores the corporate aspect of faith. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have alone time with God, but I think in the west we're in danger of having so much "alone time" with God that we get unsettled by the corporate dimension of it all. What do we value more? I haven't got too much further in my thoughts to be honest, because I don't want to simply intellectualise it all. I want to live it out. That's going to take more time. I can have all the theory in the world, but if i'm not living it, it's meaningless. As good old James wrote "don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (james 1:22).
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