Measure thy life by
loss and not by gain,
Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured
forth,
For love's strength standeth
in love's sacrifice,
And he who suffers most has
most to give.
Death to Self
is the Way Out Into a Life of Sacrifice
This dandelion has long
ago surrendered its golden petals, and has
reached its crowning stage of dying - the
delicate seed-globe must break up now - it
gives and gives till it has nothing left.
What a revolution would
come over the world - the world of starving
bodies at home - the world of starving souls
abroad - if something like this were the
standard of giving; if God's people ventured
on "making themselves poor" as
Jesus did, for the sake of the need around;
if the "I" - "me" -
"mine" were practically
delivered up, no longer to be recognized when
they clash with those needs.
The hour of this new
dying is clearly defined to the dandelion
globe; it is marked by detachment.
There is no sense of wrenching; it stands
ready, holding up its little life, not
knowing when or where or how the wind that
bloweth where it listeth may carry it
away. It holds itself no longer for its
own keeping, only as something to be given; a
breath does the rest, turning the
"readiness to will" into the
"performance" (2 Cor. 8:11).
And to a soul that through "deaths
oft" has been brought to this point,
even acts that look as if they must
involve an effort, become something natural,
spontaneous, full of a "heavenly
involuntariness," so simply are they the
outcome of the indwelling love of Christ.
Shall we not ask God to
convict us as to where lies the hindrance to
this self-emptying? It is not alone
mere selfishness, in its ordinary sense, that
prevents it; long after this has been
cleansed away by the Precious Blood there may
remain, unrecognized, the self-life in more
subtle forms. It may co-exist with much
that looks like sacrifice; there may be much
of usefulness and of outward self-denial, and
yet below the surface may remain a clinging
to our own judgment, a confidence in our own
resources, an unconscious taking of our own
way, even in God's service. And these
things hold down, hold in our souls,
and frustrate the Spirit in His
working. The latent self-life needs to
be brought down into the place of death
before His breath can carry us hither and
thither as the wind wafts the seeds.
Are we ready for this last surrender?
Do you ask, "Does
God really mean the emptying to reach so far
as this?" Study the inner life of
Jesus. "I speak not of Myself," He
says. "I can of Mine own self do
nothing." "I seek not Mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent
Me." His human self-life, sinless
though it was, was laid down that He might
live by the Father; and our self-life,
defiled and worthless, shall we not lay it
down that we may live by Him?
But how? Again
not by struggling and wrestling, but by dying
to it in Jesus. "I am crucified
with Christ" - I myself in the very
essence of my being, I let myself go to that
death; and by the mysterious power with which
God meets faith, I find that He has made it
true: the bonds are loosed and He can have
His way with me...
Shall we not let Him
have His way? Shall we not go all
lengths with Him in His plans for us - not,
as these "green things upon the
earth" in their unconsciousness, but
with the glory of free choice? Shall we
not translate the story of their little lives
into our own?
For all their teaching
of surrender and sacrifice is no fanciful
mysticism; it is a simple reality that can be
tested at every turn - nay, that must
be so tested. If we are apprehending
Christ's death in its delivering power, our
homes will not be slow to find it out.
O Jesus, the Crucified,
I will follow Thee in Thy path. Inspire
me for the next step, whether it leads down
into the shadow or up into the light.
Surely in what place my Lord the King shall
be, whether in death or life, even there also
will Thy servant be. Amen.
Excerpt from
"Parables of the Cross" by I.
Lilias Trotter. This book is available from Three
Brothers Books.
