Reading the beginning of Ian Kershaw’s excellent book ‘Hitler. Nemesis,’ reminds me clearly once again how this man shows the power of the ‘Self.’ It is the ‘self’ which is cruel, hard, unloving and cares only for well, itself! It cares nothing for the other person, no matter what and no matter who! We folks wander through life believing that we are actually quite decent because we tend to do quiet decent things, and that while we are quite good we do have faults which leak out now and again – usually with good reason or excuse. However the hard truth is that we are actually very bad people, with a depth of corruption we cannot ever know, and have merely a few good bits, what the ancients called ‘residual grace,’ and when that leaps out we congratulate ourselves and praise ourselves for being basically good folks. It is hard to accept we can be a s cold and dark and full of the ‘Self’ as Adolf Hitler, but the truth remains so.
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Hitler, for whatever reason, his nature, his genes, his upbringing, the Great War, his nations situation, whatever the outward cause, managed to find himself leading a nation of sixty million people who had become totally entwined into his personality. He could not do without them, and as the nation discovered, and some still refuse to accept, that they were totally joined to Adolf Hitler! His ‘self’ became Germany! Now these were not stupid people. This was a highly developed, well-educated nation, one of the leaders in Europe. Between 1919 and 1933, the year Hitler took power, Germans were well able to read and listen to foreign news. The wireless had become common and news spread faster, and more honestly perhaps, than ever before. People freely travelled abroad, free political discussion was accepted, and the behaviour of the Nazi Party, as well as the left leaning parties, were well known, yet Hitler’s ‘self’ came to dominate. The book is entitled ‘Nemesis,’ the Greek goddess of retribution, and details the result of this powerful nation coming under the spell of this man and his ‘self.’
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Does the Christian realise how much ‘Self’ is in his life? We talk about giving ourselves to Jesus but how much do we really let go? That is my failing, I never ‘let go’ and let Jesus be Lord! However that is the only way to live. Our ‘self’ is a black hole full of bile while Jesus is God’s Holy Son and wishes to fill us with himself – that is His ‘SELF!’ Without this we can do nothing, our works are nothing, no matter what! Yet giving our ‘self’ to Jesus is true ‘repentance,’ as we no longer rely on our distorted nature but on his perfect one. This however is difficult as Zac Poonen said, “The flesh dies hard, I’ll tell you that!” Few can truly do this. Peter wrote of the ‘conflicting natures within you,’ Paul constantly reminded his readers to ‘put of the old man and ut on the new.’ Usually he did this from a prison where his determination to put aside his ‘self’ had led him! Oh yes I forgot to mention, putting aside the ‘self’ and allowing Jesus ‘self’ to live in you will be glorious! However this may well be glorious in a prison, with much hardship as well as glorious with much fortune! Still, you can enjoy the fact that your Lord puts you where he knows you work best, he will not put you where you would not fit!
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Lord, let me ‘let go’ this self. I fear I will never do this. If I do I can have peace, and you can have glory. You will also look ‘upon the suffering of your soul, and be satisfied!’
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