ii / Less, Less, Less.

LESSONS LEARNED (& learning still)

pt. 2 – The Strength In Emptiness; the Glory In Humility.

Humility, our corrective lenses. 

Perhaps the most foundational lesson I’ve been taught this year is something which only can be learned (and relearned over and over) through long hours of God-wrestling and painful days, weeks, months, of emptying.

To be nothing. To be less so He can be great in you. To love nothing, save the endless love of Christ, and to realize you have nothing of any value in this world but that expansive, never-ending love.

Oswald Chambers said it well, in his book My Utmost for His Highest, when he stated, “It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us but of what God puts in us.” Slowly, I have begun to learn this very truth. The difficulty of salvation comes when we are not only asked to lay down our sins, but to also lay down our selves, our innate desire to be something noteworthy, our craving to succeed. Christ has come to bring the understanding that less of us equates to more of Him. Always.

This lesson has radically changed me. Every once and awhile this year, in the midst of all the uncertainty and frustration and dryness and hopelessness, I’ve had moments where I’m so desperately humbled and overpowered by the grace, love, mercy, and infiniteness of our Jesus that it’s brought me to my knees. And at these moments of overwhelming holiness, I’ve realized that God needs me to see. He needs me to see and remember: I’m only firmly rooted in humility, I’m only steady in the lowest place, kneeling before my God. In that place I am completely undone & totally free, I am Mary at the feet of Jesus, and I have everything I need. (and the lowest place of humility becomes the holiest place of worship; those bowed down will be brought up highest.) Be brought low.

 

“I’m only steady on my knees. . . ”  – Son, Sleeping at Last

 

– allison nicole –