I am about to leave to head to Limestone Correctional Institution to serve on the Kairos team going into the prison to share the love, hope, and healing in Jesus Christ with men inside the prison. We will be inside the prison for four days Thurs-Sun and we could use your prayers. I reflected in my morning devotion Wednesday on our desperate need for silence to get connected with God and ourselves. Today inside the prison, we will begin our time with the inmates with my sharing of a meditation that ties into our need for silence entitled “Know Yourself.” For my devotion this morning I am sharing with you this devotion, as it is something all of us need to discern.
“On the next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” (Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.) Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!” Jesus said to him, “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” He continued, “I tell all of you the solemn truth - you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (JOHN 1:43-51)
KNOW YOURSELF
I want you to think for a moment about what's going on with Nathaniel in this story.
As the story begins, we have Philip bringing Nathaniel to Jesus. At that point Jesus
has seen Nathaniel before, but Nathaniel had not yet seen Jesus.
Where had Jesus seen Nathaniel before? All we really know about that is that when
Jesus saw him, Nathaniel was sitting under a fig tree, apparently by himself. I like to
think he was meditating... getting to know himself.
That seems terribly unimportant, doesn't it? But it was important enough for Jesus
to have made a mental note of it. There was something about the fact that Nathaniel
was just sitting quietly there by himself that got Jesus' attention. We know from
many occurrences in Jesus' later life that he considered time alone to be very
important.
When was the last time you tried to get off by yourself, at least as much as
you can here, just to think? We all need to do that at times.
We need especially to think about ourselves, about who we are, about how we feel, about what's important to us, and about who is important to us. We
need to think about what makes us happy and what makes us sad, about
what things make us feel good about ourselves, and what things make us feel
bad, about what we like and what we don't like.
In short, we need to think about who we are.
Do you know yourself? How well do you know yourself?
Well, when Nathaniel was seen by Jesus he was just sitting and perhaps thinking.
And Jesus tuned in to his thoughts and knew him. And when Jesus greeted
Nathaniel, Nathaniel knew that Jesus knew him. In that moment he thought of
himself in a new way. Under the fig tree he had looked at his life from the inside.
Now it was like he was seeing his life through the eyes of Jesus. It was like he was
another person looking at his life from the outside.
Have you ever tried that - looking at your own life sort of from the outside? You
should try it.
Try a game of imagination with me for just a little bit. Close your eyes if you would.
Imagine that you are sitting quietly under a tree somewhere just thinking about your
life. Now imagine that your mind can move somewhere outside of yourself and you
stand off to the side looking at yourself, at your own life.
There is no one else around. There is nothing there to distract you, so take your
time. Take a good close look at yourself - at your life. What do you see? Whom do
you see? What's that person like when you look carefully? What mood can you
read from the face, the eyes? Can you look into the heart? The soul? What do you
see there?
When we are honest with ourselves, we may be surprised to find that we have many
more good qualities than bad. When was the last time you have thought about your
good qualities, the special gifts you have that no one else has?
We will also discover some qualities we wish we did not have. Yet, it is important
that we be honest with ourselves and accept ourselves as we are, including our
weaknesses. As we know from AA, the first step toward overcoming our
weaknesses is to admit that they exist.
It is very important that we know our condition if we hope to benefit from this Kairos time. This means being humble. The word “humble” comes from the Latin word
humus, which means earth. To be humble is to be like the earth, open and
receptive. The foundation upon which Kairos builds is honest self- knowledge which
comes through humility and openness.
Kairos can build for the future only if:
We are available to God's loving knowledge of us.
We make the best use of this opportunity.
We do not prejudge the Kairos - there is no "expected response."
So take time now to begin to KNOW YOURSELF.
My family, I pray you will take time alone to reflect on truly coming to know yourself: who you are, who you want to become, and what changes you need to embrace to become all God has created you to be, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me and over the Kairos team and inmates over these next 4 days.. God bless you my friends!
Please share you reflections in the comment box below.
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
