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| Marlena Graves |
The whole premise of Graves’ book is servant living, rooted in deep love of and trust in God.
She continually slips in pearls of wisdom, almost discreetly.
Like this: “Could it be that Jesus learned the habit of voluntary self-emptying and renunciation of self-will by observing his mother? Graves asks us to recall the words of Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel [what we call the Magnificat… “I am the Lord’s servant… May your word in me be fulfilled.”]
“Jesus didn’t cling to his rights,” Graves writes, “He repeatedly gave them up.”
She goes on, “To choose emptiness entails a deep trust in God as we take the downward descent into servanthood and humility… It’s the way of his mama. But it makes absolutely no sense from the human perspective.”
Graves points out that Jesus was born “at the bottom of society’s pecking order… The first time God opened his eyes, he gazed into the face of his mother. Had Mary not been able to feed him from her own body, Jesus would have perished. Holy vulnerability.”
How do we begin to achieve such a level of servanthood? Graves advises that “If I am to be like Jesus, a saint, I am going to have to walk away from what this world calls status...”
In discussing other aspects of servanthood, Graves offers a take on a piece of the American version of Christianity that most would ignore. “Back in the day when there was prayer in school, there was slavery, lynching, and the genocide of the indigenous too. Our abuse, torture, and killing of others betray our prayerlessness and lack of love for sister and brother. God would rather have our life of prayer manifest itself in love for our neighbors, which demonstrates our love for him, over perfunctory prayer in school any day.”
“Any Christianity that justifies the hatred, mistreatment, or abuse of another is not the way of Jesus.”
After making this point, Graves concludes: “How then do we become the kind of people who are not akin to the Ku Klux Klansmen pastors and laypeople of our time, but those who are living answers to prayer for others? We begin first, I think, by praying for our enemies and moving in the direction of love.”
She backs up this idea by quoting Dallas Willard, who wrote “To understand Jesus’ teachings, we must realize that deep in the orientations of our spirit we cannot have one posture toward God and a different one toward other people.”
A few chapters later, in discussing the true, humble saints of the earth who will have a huge inheritance in heaven, Graves refers to C.S. Lewis’ THE GREAT DIVORCE. Quickly she then refers to Paul’s reference of “incomparably great power,” mentioned in Ephesians 1:19-21.
Paul prayed that the members of the Ephesian church would have their eyes opened to receive such power. Eyes opened by living close to the ground, away from status, success and the world.
“The posture of a servant is of one of bent knees. Washing soiled feet. It is a close-to-the-earth, face-to-the-ground posture. Vulnerable. It is only in this lowly position, a servant’s posture, that glory is revealed and that we have the possibility of glimpsing the grandeur and glory about us. We are able to truly see when we see the earth from below rather than from above.”
Farther on in THE WAY UP IS DOWN, Graves discusses people, who like the beggar
“I worry about us as a church when we ignore and bad mouth the immigrant, undocumented or not, the refugee, the poor, the physically or mentally sick, the elderly, disabled, imprisoned, and other vulnerable and marginalized people, including children…Ignoring also entails supporting and voting for bad laws, that is, unjust laws that worsen their plight. I really do worry when we railroad the very people Jesus made a beeline for.”
Graves suggests that her worldview is counterintuitive. It becomes possible only through memento mori (remembering that we will all die), which opens the door to living life purposefully; which she defines as Kairos (Greek for the right, critical or opportune moment).
She quotes McKinley Valentine to further define the term. “In Christian theology, Kairos is referred to extensively. It has the sense of ‘ripeness.’ It can be a small moment in one person’s life that is ripe, and full, and perfect.”
For Graves, the goal of a Christian life looks like this: “I don’t want anything else. Not when it comes to possessions. All I want to do is be able to pay my bills and not live paycheck to paycheck. There are very few things I want or need.”
On the flip side of this, here’s a very unique view of hell. “Hell is laser focusing on what you don’t have, refusing to take our eyes off of our deprivations.”
Towards the end of her book, Graves provides a treasure trove of wisdom. Beginning with this: “When we’ve made our requests to God and done our part and accept the given until God shows us otherwise, if he ever does, we become grounded. We fix our eyes on Jesus and practice gratitude so we can learn gratitude. We live simply… We pray… We do the next thing given to us. We learn a healthy detachment. We learn to listen for God’s quiet voice and spot God’s hands in the midst of the dizzying noise and glittering neon lights of our consumer culture…”
She references James 5:16-18 concerning the effective prayer of a righteous person. “James connects a holy life, a righteous life, with powerful and effective prayer. We can’t miss or dismiss the connection between holiness and a powerful presence (and effective prayer!)… I am not talking about people who claim to be holy but people who are so much like Jesus that they take our breath away.”
To Graves’ way of thinking, this is where true power comes from. “This is the fruit of Jesus’ heart becoming our heart. It is a life full of the Holy Spirit. Our mere presence can usher in shalom and healing.”
Marlena Graves proved herself to be an uncommonly insightful writer with her first book, A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER. And THE WAY UP IS DOWN is additional, ample evidence of this fact.
THE WAY UP IS DOWN, Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself, is scheduled for release on July 14th.
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