Nouen does not make life easy for us, does he? Every meditation is so full of food for thought, and so full of counterintuitive observations! We human beings, especially in America, thrive on competition - it's the American way, right? Our "glory" so often comes from making it to the top, being the best, the coolest, the smartest, the richest. We always have our eye fixed on the top of the ladder.
It is just the opposite with Jesus. Instead of scrabbling for glory by being the best rabbi in town, the best prophet, the cleverest orator, he kept his eye fixed on the poor and the outcasts, on the ones who didn't count worth beans in his society. God's glory is revealed to us by moving downward. How bizarre this seems to us at first glance, and how difficult a concept for us; I think it is something we all struggle with all the time. We want to pattern our lives after Jesus, but it is so hard to break old patterns, to turn ourselves away from what most of us have known since we were little kids - the vying for our parents' attention, trying to beat out the other kids with better grades, more accolades at school - you know the drill. Our eye keeps moving up that ladder!
In reading Nouen's meditations this Lent I have been most intrigued by this "downward call" of Jesus - not an easy concept, but one that we can hold before us and aspire to. I don't expect in a million years that I can come close to answering that call for myself; I can but try my best, and maybe that is enough.
Audrey
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