Submission

I recently stumbled across two quotes from Richard Foster's modern evangelical spiritual classic 'Celebration of Discipline'. They reminded me of Christ's words to his disciples: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.' (Matt. 16:24) They seem to be a timely reminder to those of us who are about to embark on ordained ministry, and thus be in positions where we may abuse our leadership, with its authority and power.

According to Richard Foster, this is the problem:
'The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the great bondages in human society today.'

And the solution:
'Modern men and women find it extremely difficult to read the great devotional masters because they make such lavish use of the language of self-denial... we must underscore to ourselves that self-denial means the freedom to give way to others. It means to hold others' interests above self-interest. In this way self-denial releases us from self-pity.'