You Make a Better Window than a Door

One of the phrases used in the scriptures to describe submitting ourselves to God is that "our will is swallowed up in the will of the Father." This can sound scary. It sounds like we'll lose any sense of self or identity if we were to allow our will to be swallowed up by the will of the Father. We may fear that we'll become invisible or insignificant, just an unimportant and unnecessary speck in the infinity that is God, with no chance for original thought or creativity or expression. But let's try a different analogy. Imagine that we are a window, and God is trying to pour His light and His love into the world through us. We might feel that making ourselves as transparent as possible is the same as making ourselves invisible and thus unimportant. No one will see or notice or care about us. We may even be tempted to try to hold all of that light for ourselves, and not let even a single drop of golden sunshine spill out. Resenting the fact that we have to submit to God's will, we instead do everything we can to get in His way and block His light. But refusing to be used by God for the purpose for which we were created, all because we fear becoming invisible, is actually the only way to make ourselves invisible. By blocking all light from coming through us, we blind the world to the light God would have sent through us. And not just the world, but ourselves also. We can only see the light when we share it with others. Yes, allowing light to come through means we must become more and more transparent, but getting out of God's way and letting His light shine through us makes us more visible, not less. I think when we hear the word selfless we sometimes believe that this means we must let go of ourselves and give up everything and become nothing. But to be selfless is to let go of everything until we become nothing but ourselves. To be selfless is to be our self less - or minus - everything else. To be selfless is to scrape off all of the ego and the fears and insecurities and doubts and pride and greed and covetousness and delusions, until we are a completely transparent, and thus, perfect window, allowing God's light and love to spill forth unimpeded and glorious to light the whole world with the beauty and majesty for which God created us.