Absolve you to yourself

You Know by Jen Louden



Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson


We live in a society of advice columns, experts and make-over shows. Without even knowing it, you can begin to believe someone knows better than you how to live your life. Someone might know a particular something better – like how to bake a three-layer molten coconut chocolate cake or how to build a website – but nobody else on the planet knows how to live your life better than you. (Although one or two people may think they do.) For today, trying asking yourself often, especially before you make a choice, “What do I know about this?”
 
I love these words, absolve you to yourself.  I think that a person can only do that effectively when they accept Jesus!  I will agree with many who would say these are bold words.  Is Jesus the only way, what about orphans in Uganda?  I honestly do not know the answer to that question.  I only know the answer to the question of why am I a Christian.  And the reason why, is because I have experienced Jesus within my own being.  I have felt his connection to me, his acceptance of me, his love within me and I felt that in a context of not feeling that towards myself, being frustrated with myself, being afraid that God would reject me because there was so much about myself that I rejected.  Surely he would agree with me that I am not worthy.
 
And yet, he did not agree with me.  He did not even acknowledge that those things that I hated about myself, were even a little bit of an issue with him.  In fact, as I experienced Him, I saw how those things about myself that I hated, he understood why I did them.  He had compassion and understanding for me.
 
So if God absolves me, then surely I can too.  And if I can do this as well, it will make it easier for me to hear my own heart and not dismiss it as if it were from those parts that I do not like.  Which as a born again creation, allows me to hear God.  And yet until I realize that I am broken and hopeless without faith that God loves me, until I walk in that faith, God's new creation will not exist in me and the voices that I find within me will be flawed and not lead me in a good way.
 
I am still wrestling with these thoughts and feel great excitement and fear as I resolve what I think is true.  I also believe the bible is the word of God and these truths fit within the words of that book and thus struggle to see how those things work with this great mystery.