Oswald's principle today is fundamental to rescue work. You can hear the danger in the job title -- rescue. There's something very gratifying about saving people, and being needed can become addictive. Not a big danger for a writer, however. Today's devotional spoke to me not in my position at a homeless shelter but in my role as a mother.
In some ways, I am called to be Christ to my children -- to represent his unconditional love and sacrificial care -- and for years, rescuing was part of the job. One broken leg, lots of stitches, hurt feelings, fights, unkind words, emergency rooms, tubes in the ears, allergic reactions, nightmares -- my role was to fix things, to make the pain go away -- remarkable, even to me, was the power of my love -- but my role is changing. "He must become greater; I must become less."
I still want very much to make everything OK for my children, so it's probably a good thing my abilities are limited. If I were superhuman, I would rush in to give them fairy tale lives. Oswald's words bring me up short: "If you become a necessity to a soul, you are out of God's order." I do not want my children to have upsets, havoc and crumblings of health -- and I cannot imagine rejoicing with "divine hilarity" when they meet them -- but I do want them to know the living Christ.
Lord, help me to live with this disparity. Help me to know when and how to become less so that you might become greater. And please never allow me to stand between you and my children. Amen.
Me too!
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