Thoughts after contemplating this past week

Could anything be more winsome than true self-forgetfulness, humility, and godliness?  Would to God that all of us truly regard ourselves as crucified to all that is part of this world that is passing away.  If only I could love another person as Christ loved me.  May we always regard the most unlovable and the most personally repulsive as though they were the Lord Christ Himself in our midst.  If only I could live as if I were to stand before the Lord Jesus Himself in person, with all of my heart-motions and motives laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom I must give an account.  If only it did not take intense personal suffering to break us of inordinate affections and turn our eyes towards things eternal.  Pain makes us long for that city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  One day of true humility, one day of true self-abasement, one day of heart-brokenness over my children’s and loved-one’s souls – If only God would grant this to His whole church.  “Lament and mourn and weep!  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom” – James 4:9.  May God teach us all what this means.