How can I die today?

There are a couple of things that are operating in my life, and in the world, that prompt me to ask "How can I die today?". The first is that I need to die in order to truly live. The second is that I, as strong, must descend to serve the weak or, more palatably put perhaps, the ones in need.

The Bible infuses my physical death with meaning as it will end my rebellion and usher in a new life that I have only heard about and rarely, if ever, received a foretaste of. But I find that, while living, when I die to myself in taking up my cross daily and relinquish my rights, there is a life on the other side of that death that is truly life. Those are the times when my heart is full and my soul is at rest and full of peace. Those are the times when (as Chris Rice puts it) I can almost hear the angel's wings and I can feel His good pleasure. Those are the tears of joy I shed. Snatching my rights back again in an attempt to fuel my own resurrection finds me looking over a wrecked landscape where I often shake my head in disbelief and mutter, "What happened?". In dying to myself and in serving other people I find joy. Not happiness, mind you, for in the midst of the service I can strain and groan at times, but joy is there just on the other side.

The second is like it. In my strength I must serve the weak or the needy. It is in doing this, in this descent, that I picture and, dare I say emulate, the incarnation of the Son of God. When I serve my wife I do not abdicate my headship of my family...I activate it. When I look for ways to be available to my sons I do not subject myself to them...I exercise my leadership over them. When my oldest son comforts his younger sibling he stoops in much the same way that God has to comfort me in my times of distress and gives me a picture of what He did to save me.

So, where is my descent into death today? My God...I saw Yours this morning didn't I?

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