Descending to Ascend

We live in a culture in which a love and celebration of self is well established. Walt Whitman, well over a century ago, modeled this for us. “I celebrate myself,” he wrote, “and sing myself. I loaf and invite my soul….” A little later Oscar Wilde encouraged a similar sentiment: “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” And you can hear echoes of this in Whitney Houston’s popular version of the song “The Greatest Love of All.” The essential teaching of the ballad is this: “Learning to love your self is the greatest love of all.”

Such romanticized notions of the inner self have left us with very little room for the biblical notion of self-denial. No longer is it kosher to warn against the dangers of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. Such statements have all been building blocks in what has become known as “The Culture of Narcissism.” In the 70’s we called it “The Me Generation.” This celebration of the self, however, is quite different than the Bible’s prescription for happiness. According to the gospel, self-denial is exactly what is required if we really want to find true and lasting happiness. In the words of St. Augustine, we must “descend in order to ascend.” In the words of Jesus: “He who wishes to save his life must lose it” (Matthew 16:25).

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’”

~ Mark 8: 34-37