"Lord, Is It I? "(matthew 26.22)

Think of what is represented by the letter "I." It is a short word for it needs only one breath to speak it, only one stroke to write, only one moment to give it expression. It is, indeed, the shortest word in the language, and is the crystallization of language in a letter. It is a common word, for every one is saying it all day, while travelling in the world of waking realities, and all night while trembling in the spectral world of dreams. It is a necessary word, for you can never get beyond it, never do without it, while you live or when you die. It is a deep word, for who can sound the sea of its deep significance? It is an important word, for of all words that can lighten us with their flash, or startle us with their blow, there is no more important word to us than this: "Who is there? ... " I." "Who are you? " Conjure up this mystery-this "you" symbolized by the letter " I." Face it, speak to it, challenge it, and know if all is right with it.

Happy it is if you can say, "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Still you may feel that two natures, for the present, war within you, and you have need to offer Augustine's prayer, "Lord, deliver me from that wicked man, myself."

When the wind is rising and the waves are treacherous, it is good for each one to look to his own ship, to his own ropes, to his own sails; not first to stand and speculate on the seaworthiness of other ships."

unknown | Oct 1954
General