Meditate | The Daily Reckoning

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually” (Isaiah 58:9-11).

I find taking actions from a place of love and charity and hanging onto a sense of responsibility for the future, for the outcome, are like oil and water. The two perspectives don’t mix:

“Those in the stream of providence are people who trust in the Divine and ascribe everything to Him. But those not in the stream of providence are people who trust in themselves alone and attribute everything to themselves; theirs is a contrary outlook, for they take providence away from the Divine and claim it as their own” (Secrets of Heaven 8478).

If I believe that I am responsible for the outcome, for the way things work out, then I am claiming providence as my own. My sense of autonomous selfhood believes that it has the power to manipulate the outcome, and so is inclined to make a priority of strategizing choices and actions that are advantageous for its advancement in profit and reputation…and then it worries constantly about those outcomes. I find my ego relentlessly grasps at responsibility. Its point of view will always be there, but that’s neither reason to live from it nor get down on myself for it:

“Do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise: why should you destroy yourself? Do not be overly wicked, nor be foolish: why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp this, and also not remove your hand from the other; for he who fears God will escape them all…For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others” (Ecclesiastes 7:16-18, 20-22).

Again, it’s my ego that thinks it’s possible, and a worthy venture, to get so pure that no one can fault it for anything. But I don’t think that’s what God even cares about. God cares about us acknowledging Him, that is, living from love and charity. It’s not about getting rid of “it”—my ego, my selfhood! But there needs to be a daily reckoning. Which camp am I going to let rule?  

Chelsea Rose Odhner

Chelsea lives with her husband and three young children in Willow Grove, PA. She is an assistant editor for New Church Connection and an editor and writer for New Church Perspective.