To
grow in the freedom to fully love God and others requires growing in the
capacity to “de-center” from our selves and “re-center” in God. It is a death
and re-birth experience. The successful practice of this approach frees us from
the domination of our individual ego and enables us to awaken to a sense of the
self rooted in God through Jesus Christ. This new sense of self does not result
from the abolishment of our former humanity but rather its transformation and
fulfillment. The goal is what the Apostle Paul meant when he declared, “I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
Thus
while life in the Spirit is deeply personal, it is not individualistic.
Spiritual practices like deep prayer and sacrificial service enable us to
de-center, to yield to and persevere in God in the face of pain,
disappointment, confusion, and disorientation. They provide structure and
support for being radically open to the Spirit and the Spirit’s formative work
in us in an ongoing and consistent way, one that must be rooted primarily in
faith. Without faith, we are trapped in our separate, limited
selves—centered in our own limited, self-referential understanding. But by
laying that aside and trusting God by faith, we are open and present to God and
the divine action in and through us.
