Referencing an older post, a better picture has been found. Of late, the realization of life as a journey of transformation has become much more acute. Life as a journey to death which yields more life. It's a confusing idea that I'm just beginning to wrap my head around. Henri Nouwen does a much better job of describing it in his book, Life of the Beloved. He describes the process of death as one which should open us up even more to God and to loving other people. This is a difficult concept for me to grasp, though I think I'm getting better at it. Applying the idea to other areas, it's intriguing to see what "dying to oneself" looks like in myriad situations. Through some personal unscientific study by someone who knows very little about it, it's reasonable to say death yields life.
2 comments:
GREAT "anticipatory-before" picture" for further up and further in" - I love it.
I don't know how seeds feel, but for me, any personal experience, set of circumstances, or season that I have labelled "dying to myself" has been pretty dang painful.
I've been trying to think of pictures I would use if I were writing about "further up and further in" from the standpoint of a person in the midst of the process. Perhaps a picture of a WWII child standing alone in a bombed-beyond-recognition Berlin street or an man moaning over the bloody bodies of his wife and child in a bombed and burned Afghani village?
But then I argue that those images, though they convey a sense of great personal loss, are overly dramatic for most of the personal history I have filed under "dying to self", and they lack the elements of intention, hope, and glory - so much a part of the Christian believer's yearning to know God more - that are conveyed so well by the picture you used.
"Further up and further in"...is that from the beginning of The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, where Aslan blows the boy and girl off the mountain into their arduous adventure?
...and longsuffering...the pictures I thought of don't convey the hopeful longsuffering that I think is often involved in dying to self.
shoot...maybe I shouldn't be posting on this subject at all since I haven't read Nouwen's book...though your comments make me want to...:-)
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