Reaching the End of Ourselves
Oh how pride has been my enemy
George Matheson of Scotland echoes the discipline of his personal despair in his book Thoughts for Life’s Journey when he writes:
My soul, reject not the place of thy prostration! It has ever been the robing room for royalty. Ask the great ones of the past what has been the spot of their prosperity; they will say, “It was the cold ground on which I once was laying.” Ask Abraham; he will point you to the sacrifice of Moriah. Ask Joseph; he will direct you to his dungeon. Ask Moses; he will date his fortune from his danger in the Nile. Ask Ruth; she will bid you build her monument on the field of her toil. Ask David; he will tell you that his songs came from the night. Ask Job; he will remind you that God answered him out of the whirlwind. Ask Peter; he will extol his submission in the sea. Ask John; he will give the palm to Patmos. Ask Paul he will attribute his inspiration to the light that struck him blind. Ask one more—the Son of Man. Ask Him whence has come His rule over the world. He will answer, “From the cold ground on which I was lying—the Gethsemane ground; I received my sceptre there.” Thou too, my soul, shalt be garlanded by Gethsemane. The cup thou fain wouldst pass from thee will be thy coronet in the sweet by-and-by. The hour of thy loneliness will crown thee. The day of thy depression will regale thee. It is the desert that will break forth into singing; it is the trees of thy silent forest that will clasp their hands.
Charles R. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening: Believing in Grace Is One Thing. Living It Is Another. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).
