4th March 2025

When life gets hard, we sometimes use things to prop ourselves up and keep ourselves going. Some common props we use might be technology, clothing and possessions like cars, homes and shiny things. Some are bad for us, like alcohol, drugs or stepping on others as we climb the ladder of success. We try to build ourselves up with education, achievements and power. But anything we might use as a prop is only temporary and can come crumbling down. 

Is it possible to live without any props? What would life look like if we kicked them out from under our feet – what would we do then? Jesus lived with no props at all. He didn’t rely on any of the things we usually use. He didn’t have to put sticky notes on the bathroom mirror to remind himself to think positive – ‘You can do it!’ 

Jesus had tough times too. Right after he was baptised, he went through an incredibly arduous time of temptation in the wilderness. That wasn’t his only temptation – we are told in Hebrews 4:15 that he was tempted in every way, just like we are. If that’s true, he faced it every day. 

Michael Jinkins said this is the way Jesus lived: ‘His whole life was carried out resting in the Spirit, as though consciously floating on the breath of God, as though he had kicked out all the props of self-interested, self-absorbed, self-centered support that characterize conventional creaturely existence, the self-justification and self-glorification we so commonly rely on for security and equilibrium. He was a person whose strength was God’s Spirit, an invisible and unshakable force that gave him the freedom to be powerless, the strength to be humble, the authentic human being in community with others, living purely for the sake of the other.’ ¹

We can live without props, just as Jesus did because he shared the ‘life force’ of the Spirit with us. Instead of using temporary, harmful things to help us through life, may we, like Jesus, learn to float on the breath of God and rest in the Spirit.

First published on 11 February 2025, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com a personal blog which is not sponsored by Grace Communion International.

 ^{1 Michael Jinkins Invitation to Theology, p 196.}

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