C.S. Lewis: Christ wants us to die to self

“Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked–the whole outfit. I will give you a whole new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1980) 196-197.

Lent is half over. Are we learning to die to self? Are we discovering the gift God offers us when we learn to die to self. The gift is Himself. Will we take it? Will you?

“If I sow generosity, it’s going to come back to me, and I’m going to reap generosity. Every farmer knows this. A farmer has sacks of seed in his barn and he looks at his empty field. He doesn’t complain, “There’s no crop! I wish there was a crop!” He just goes out and starts planting seed. When you have a need, plant a seed.

It seems illogical that when I have a need, I should give. Why did God set it up this way? Because God is a giver. He is the most generous giver in the universe, and God wants you to learn to be like him. He wants to build character in you.”

Rick Warren in “Daily Hope with Rick Warren” blog post dated 18 October 2011.

Our stewardship is based on what we have. If we’ve got seed, what keeps us from sowing generosity?

“When we realize that everything that we have is a gift from God, it becomes possible for us to give in a radical way. As we realize God’s grace, we also understand that our earthly possessions are expendable. We are also fed physically and spiritually when we engage in this kind of Christ-like generosity.”

Tim Keller in “Radical Generosity” sermon dated 10 November 1991.

This Lent I sense God drawing me to a deeper grasp of His grace as a basis for transforming my generosity? How is your understanding of God’s grace shaping yours?

“In my own life I know how hard it is for me to trust that I am loved, and to trust that the intimacy I most crave is there for me. I most often live as if I have to earn love, do something noteworthy, and then perhaps I might get something in return…

Do I really believe that I am loved first, independent of what I do or what I accomplish? This is an important question because as long as I think that what I most need I have to earn, deserve, and collect by hard work, I will never get what I most need and desire, which is a love that cannot be earned, but that is freely given.

Thus, my return is my willingness to renounce such thoughts and to choose to live more and more from my true identity as a cherished child of God.”

Henri Nouwen in “Returning to Trust” Reflections on the Third Sunday of Lent, email from Henri Nouwen Society on 23 March 2014.

Once I come to realize that what I most need can only be found in Christ, is freely received by grace, and comes to me not because I earned it, can I become a conduit that freely gives to others. God help me grasp your gracious generosity to me and extend it to others in a manner that brings you glory.

Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8

“What is your motivation for giving? Is it to freely give or to give expecting something in return? This is an ongoing tension for the generous giver. We give… time… expertise… money… friendship…commitment; we give our very life, with what expectation in mind? Disappointment follows gifts with strings attached, but gifts given freely lead to fulfillment…

You may ask, “What about my stewardship in giving gifts responsibly?” Wise givers give prayerfully and responsibly, but not to the exclusion of the Spirit’s leading. If the Lord is leading you to invest time and money in a person, ministry, or church, then obey and trust Him with the outcome. Everything we have is His; so He is ultimately responsible for the fruit of generosity.”

Boyd Bailey in “Wisdom Hunter” blog post for March 2, 2013.

I like how Bailey reminds us that the fruit of any generosity we participate in belongs to the One who provided the resources for the generosity to begin with. For us to find fulfillment in all this, it will be because we realize that we get to be a part of the cycle of provision and blessing, a cycle He invites all of us to participate in. God help us find fulfillment as conduits of spiritual and material blessings. May we lavish Your love everywhere we go with no strings attached.

“The nature of giving is best illustrated in the life of our blessed Lord, who one day was approached by a leper who asked for healing. The gospel tells us that our Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the leper. Jesus could have healed without the touch, as he healed the servant of the centurion at a distance.

Why, then, in the face of one of life’s greatest miseries and a disease from which the healthy often recoil, did the Lord cure with a touch? The Son of God made man touched the leper in order to annihilate distance between the Giver and the receiver, between Lover and the beloved, to prove sympathy by contact, to identify himself with with the woes of others.”

Fulton J. Sheen in Lent and Easter Wisdom from Fulton J. Sheen (Liguori, MO: Liguori, 2004) 10.

God did not snap his fingers or send someone to show love for him. He himself became man. He touched those suffering in horrible misery. In antiquity, Gentiles with wealth or the capacity to assist such people were instructed not to care for those who could not render service back to Rome. Additionally, Jewish leaders would have labeled such people unclean. This act of Jesus displays God’s radical generosity.

What does this have to do with us? As the hands and feet of Christ today, may we not recoil from getting our hands dirty, despite the cultural labels affixed on those who suffer for countless reasons. May we “annihilate distance…to prove sympathy by contact.” Cross this line today. Show God’s love to someone who is suffering or in difficulty through an act of generosity. Ask the Spirit to guide you or give you eyes to see this person in need.

“Blessed is he who is considerate to the needy and the poor. Generous is the man who is merciful and lends. All day the just man is merciful and lends. Let us lay hold of this blessing, let us earn the name of being considerate, let us be generous.

Not even night should interrupt you in your duty of mercy. Do not say: Come back and I will give you something tomorrow. There should be no delay between your intention and your good deed. Generosity is the one thing that cannot admit of delay.

Let us visit Christ whenever we may; let us care for him, feed him, clothe him, welcome him, honor him, not only at a meal, as some have done, or by anointing him, as Mary did, or only by lending him a tomb, like Joseph of Arimathaea, or by arranging for his burial…

The Lord of all asks for mercy, not sacrifice, and mercy is greater than myriads of fattened lambs. Let us then show him mercy in the persons of the poor and those who today are lying on the ground, so that when we come to leave this world they may receive us into everlasting dwelling places, in Christ our Lord himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Gregory of Nazianzen (330-390) in Oratio 14, De Pauperum amore, 38. 40: PG 35, 907. 910.

As I read the Early Fathers during Lent I find that they frequently urge Christ-followers to show mercy. Our culture suggests that such generosity be directed only to “worthy” causes or those that may be “deserving” of support. I am so thankful that even though I did not deserve the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, He extended it to me. God help me grow in my eagerness to extend mercy to everyone day and night.

“Give and you shall receive, much more than you ever thought possible. Give and give again. Keep hoping, keep trying, keep giving! People who give will never be poor.

If you follow this advice, within a few generations, people will never have to feel sorry for poor little beggar children again, because there won’t be any! The world has plenty of room, riches, money, and beauty. God has created enough for each and every one of us. Let us begin by dividing it more fairly.”

Anne Frank in Anne Frank’s Takes from the Secret Annex (London: Halban, 2012), diary post for 26 March 1944.

Later in this diary post Anne Frank notes the source of this thinking, the perspective she learned from her grandmother who often said: “People who give will never be poor.” I marvel at the impact we can have on others when we teach them about God’s abundance and how He instructs us to enjoy and share it all around.

Today I am in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to impart such thinking to the board, faculty, and staff of Sioux Falls Seminary and to celebrate the inauguration of Greg Henson as president. Greg blessed me by inviting me to speak to the seminary family that he now serves and to offer the benediction prayer at his installation service.

“Always offer yourself to God in prayer. Offer to endure any spiritual or temporal pain. Beg Him always to give you the strength to do His holy will.”

Alphonsus Liguori in To Serve Jesus Christ as recounted in Lent and Easter Wisdom with Alphonsus Liguori (The Redemptorists: Denver, 2011) 4.

As I think of Jesus this morning, my mind goes to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus said, “Not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42b). He even knew what was ahead and still maintained a posture of submission and obedience. What’s this got to do with generosity?

I believe that sometimes prayer appears as a cosmic shopping list of things we want God to get or do for us. Alternatively, this Lent my hope for each of us is that prayer shifts to daily giving ourselves to God with complete reliance on Him to do whatever He calls us to do.

“Lent lasts forty days, a long time, because we need a good stretch of time to step back and be neither here nor there. We need plenty of time to drop our old ways of doing things and live in-between, not yet knowing what the new ways of doing things will be. Living in-between can be scary. But taking the full forty days is important; not to do so would be like denying ourselves a spiritual adventure, the gift of in-between time.”

Sarah Parsons in A Clearing Season: Reflections for Lent (Nashville: Upper Room, 2005) 20.

The forty days of Lent are patterned after the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. If you read Luke 4:1-13 (or Matthew 4:1-11) you notice right away that Jesus “was led by the Spirit” into this season of testing. This happened prior to His ministry and must happen prior to embarking from where we are to where God would have us minister. This is why we focus on fasting, giving and prayer in this “in-between” time.

As we fast, remember that we do not to live on bread alone. Instead let us feast on every word that comes from the mouth of God. As we consider giving to the poor, we must realize that Jesus overcame the desire to possess everything that He could see from the high place as a model for our victory. And as we focus on prayer, may our posture not be questioning God or putting Him to the test as the Israelites did but settling into a place of quiet trust.