Aug 14th, 2014: Emptying Oneself
We sing worship songs about the notion of emptying ourselves often. It is one of the essential aspects of the Christian faith. What does it really mean when we still have to go about life with all of its entanglements? In Christian theology, the word is kenosis (Greek: κένωσις, kénōsis, lit. [the act of emptying]) is the 'self-emptying of our will and becoming entirely receptive to God's divine will.
We need to go through a process of emptying all of the evil contamination within us. It is an act of self-cleansing. We have stored up so much junk in our lives. We need to have the courage to name the poisons of life. Most religions in our world today would identify these three common dangerous toxins in human lives: Greed, Anger, and Ignorance.
Greed is the desire to have more and more. Greed can be about our longing for material things or our need for power or emotional dominance over others. It doesn't exist alone. Jealousy and envy tend to follow it. It can become an obsession. Its sidekick is lust. Lust is the poison that has destroyed one of the most beautiful gifts that God has given to us. The gift of sexuality.
Anger tends to originate from the insecurity of the self. Our anger can be a distraction from our needs to correct ourselves. It gives us a chance to deflect the real issues in our lives. We use it as a ticket to avoid our discomfort towards ourselves. When anger deceives us, hatred appears. Why do we have to deal with so much hate in the world today? Maybe because we have bought the lie that we are free from our own corruption, and we don't see the need for God's mercy and grace anymore.
Ignorance has the source of many contentious interactions that we have had toward one another. It affects our ability to make sound judgments. We feel condemned by one another because of our ignorance. Ignorance tends to have the language of self-righteousness. It doesn't believe in mercy. It calls for the death of reasoning. It is the kind of poison that will spread quickly.
Job 15: 31
"Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;
For emptiness will be his reward."
Philippians 2:6-7
"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
