We mediated yesterday on “in the world . . . tribulation,” “in me . . . peace” (John 16:33). In the world we have peace amid tribulation, for the deeper “in” is being “in me.” Being in the world is a surface in, but being in Him is a depth in. It is a depth in and an eternal in. Being in Him we are in everything that is in Him. Being in Him we are in everything good, everything joyous, everything creative, everything healthy, everything I need for time and eternity. I am in His everything.
The business of my life, and the only business of my life, is to abide in Him. All else follows. That is life reduced to its utmost simplicity, and to its utmost vitality. There life is lived in Life. There is nothing, and there can be nothing in life greater than Life. A saint has been defined as “one who tries a little harder.” Another definition was given by someone who saw the light shining through the figure of a saint in a stained-glass window: “A saint is one who lets the light through.” The first definition is unsatisfactory; it depicts a tense, anxiously striving person living by “by.” The second definition depicts a person who is passive—just letting the light through. The saint is not one who lives by his own struggles or through, but in. He lives in, and therefore in appropriation, in assimilation, in cooperation.
A motto on the Sat Tal Ashram wall gives it: “Not my responsibility, but my response to His ability.” I live in response to His grace, His love, His resources, His purity, His power, His everything. The alternate heartbeats of the Christian life are receptivity and response, receptivity and response—I take and I give. As I take from Infinity, I can give infinitely.
THE PRAYER
O Jesus, my Lord, I have found how to live. I live by Life. I’ve found where to live. I live in Life. What else do I need? Nothing, absolutely nothing—except more of His everything. I take to satiation—to hunger for more. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
Today I shall not struggle and try, but surrender and trust.
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