The Revolution Within

Who is the head of my life? 

What is guiding me each day, establishing rules for how I live? Is it self-indulgent pleasure, vanity, or apathy? Is it fear?

I want to be revolutionized. I want my pride, my procrastination, and my worry to be things of the past. Freed from the chains of yesterday, I want to live in the freedom of true life, full of merciful humility, courage, and trust. To be revolutionized, I need something to transpire that will transform me completely into who I was created to be.

Around 30 AD, a coarsely dressed, wild man of the desert proclaimed an uprising of the soul. A fearless man of truth, he shouted at the people enslaved by pride, greed, and sloth, “Metanoia!” Change! Be converted! Be revolutionized! This man, named John, prepared the way for an absolute rebellion — not against a ruler of a nation or even an institution or government, but against the very darkness that lurks in the hearts of human beings and seeks to control them. This darkness that seeps into the mind and soul, dividing one person from another, confusing the fullness of reality, and destroying the human drive for sanctity — John saw this darkness as the slave master, evil itself, locking the chains of self-centeredness upon people for generation after generation.

St. John the Baptist knew that the tyranny of greed and conceit must be vanquished from the heart if anyone is ever to be truly free. No earthly king or queen, no bed of silk or bag of gold should rule the human heart — only the Maker of the human heart should rule, so that every human being can live freely in the ways of truth and fulfillment, undaunted by suffering or darkness and eternally guided by divine love.

Does this sound familiar?…

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came to be through him,

and without him nothing came to be.

What came to be

through him was life,

and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

A man named John was sent from God.

He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world,

and the world came to be through him,

but the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own,

but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name,

who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory as of the Father’s only Son,

full of grace and truth.[i]

We are of God and we know that our life is in Christ. Right? Christ Jesus, the Light of the World, fills us and guides us every day. Right?

Jesus is the true light that enlightens everyone and gives to all who accept Him “the power to become children of God.”… Do we accept and receive Jesus, the Light, only to put the light that He has given to us under a bushel basket? Are we brave enough to be like St. John the Baptist and proclaim true life in Christ?

For true freedom to exist within us, we are called to allow the Light of the World to break through our walls of division, invade the plains of blind apathy, and create an insurgency of real love in the human heart. Being revolutionized by the Light is our destiny, this is our reason for being, our identity, the point of our lives. St. John the Baptist saw the great change coming — not the kind of change that politicians talk about and promise, but real change that is a total transformation of heart and will. In the greatest of rebellions, what John and his followers sought was no less than a mutiny in every person’s soul: throw off the corrupting enslavement of self-centered thinking and usher in the dominion of holiness, of grace, of loving kindness and true beauty.

St. John the Baptist said about Jesus, “He must increase; I must decrease.”

My self-centeredness, my greed, and my pride must decrease so that my reason for being, my love and my light must increase. Who is my light? The Light of the World.

Who is the leader of my life?

Christ Jesus.

Lord,

start an uprising in my heart

today and every day.

Make a rebel out of me

so that I will

be radical and do something daring:

surrendering to Your Majesty,

loving the unlovable,

teaching the unteachable,

forgiving the unforgivable —

for you are the Head, and your Light is my life.

Amen.

adapted from another post

© 2024 Christina Chase

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[i] John 1:1-14

Photo by Jack Patrick on Unsplash