In light of Joel’s post yesterday, I like what Peter Scazzero writes in his book, The Emotionally Healthy Church. 

“My most effective discipleship is to be an incarnational presence to another person.  It was for Jesus.  It is, I believe, for all his followers.  Jesus….was fully God…He was also fully human, tasting suffering and death….by entering our world, he invited sorrow and pain into his life….He died a naked, lonely death on a cross, hanging literally between heaven and earth.  It was, in a word, messy.”

“You and I may not die literally on a cross as Jesus did, but we will die in other ways when we incarnate.”

“When we choose to incarnate, we hang between our own world and the world of another person.  We are called to remain faithful to who we are, not losing our essence, while at the same time entering into the world of another….We can be assured that as Jesus’ incarnation and death brought life, so our choice to do the same will also result in resurrection life and much fruit in us and others.”

Scazzero continues:  “I am aware of the truth that when we go out of ourselves and live briefly in the world of another person, we never return to our own lives the same person.  God changes us into the image of his Son through the process.  We learn to die to the ugly parts of ourselves.  Our feet are kept on the ground.”

Comments?

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com