The Beauty of Truth

This Advent season has found my mind flickering back to the idea of the Incarnation any time it is unoccupied by some other train of thought. At first I suspected it was part of my need to understand everything, completely. That if I understood the Incarnation I would have gained control over one of the great Mysteries of God and that would make be better than thousands of scholars who had wrestled this very issue, only to raise their hands and say "I'll never understand".

I learned years ago that pride and the need to control are the twin sisters that cry for my reverence. More recently I have learned that I am incapable of besting them, not for lack of trying, but by meeting with utter failure every time. My struggles taught me that an iron will bent against itself only sharpens both edges, allowing them to cut more deeply. But what does this have to do with the Incarnation?

It explains why this one thought circles through my mind. It is in the mystery of Incarnation that the cure to pride and control has been revealed. It is precisely because I do not, most likely will never, understand the Incarnation that I recognize the form of my personal redemption. The Incarnation is about Christ fully recognizing his own greatness, and willing choosing to lay it aside for the benefit of others who would not understand, and some outright reject, him. Yet he chose to do it any way. He chose to lower himself to our level so that he could raise us to his level.

In this lies the key of freedom. Long have I stared at the beasts of pride and control that have feasted on my soul, content at the stalemate that had been reached. Now instead a way to victory has been revealed. By focusing on Christ, first in the act of Incarnation, then later in Atonement, Resurrection, and Ascension, the beasts will be starved. Instead of staring down pride I will gaze with adoration upon Humility himself. It is a well known fact that we become whatever we spend our time looking at the most.

It is a great truth of Scripture, that sin cannot be won in open combat, or refusing to acknowledge it. Instead our focus must be consumed in that which is the total opposite. Lust will not be conquered by self-control and abstinence, it will only be conquered by the power of True Love, pride by Absolute Humility, and so on for each vice there is a Most Holy Virtue, embodied in the Savior's life, and example for all who are willing to die, that they may live.

My prayer this Advent season, as the day of Incarnation draws ever closer, is that Christ would truly live among us, that each heart would welcome the Spirit that transforms our wickedness into worship.