Kirrily Lowe
Don’t Throw in the Towel
The image of the towel has captured my attention.
The towel that Christ could have thrown in.
The cup he could have avoided. The suffering he could have rejected. It's that instead of throwing in the towel, he picked it up and began to wash his disciples' feet.
How did I never see it before?
On the night of his betrayal, instead of being served, he served. It flies in the face of all that makes sense to us.
In our suffering, we expect service from others. In our pain, we cry out to be pampered. And when we face unimaginable hardship, we want the world to come and wait at our feet. But instead, he waited at our feet. He washed our feet. He bowed lower than low, not demanding to be served but to serve.
And I just wonder if this is the way through pain, through challenge, suffering and hardship. What if our attempts to save our life fail because Jesus wants to teach us how to lose our life? How to break into a lifestyle of love, a life of 'not my will, but your will be done."
A lifestyle of service.
What if this is real life?
What if it really is true that "whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."? (Matt 16:25)
What if they only way through is "no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."?(Gal 2:20)
What if at the very moment that we want to throw in the towel, we forgot about our self, and picked up our towel of service?
This is the way through impossible doors. When our flesh is crucified, the risen Christ rises on the inside of us and walks through walls we could never walk through in our own self.
I know what it feels like to want to throw in the towel. To throw in the towel of life, of purpose, of love, of endurance. I know as I write, some readers want to throw in the towel.
I believe the Holy Spirit is inviting us to another way.
Beckoning us to not throw in the towel but rather pick it up and wash someone's feet.
Pick it up and love again. Pick it up and be like Jesus.
And maybe a door will open into a new wide-open space. Into new life, resurrection life, Jesus life.
Be encouraged and Big Love
Kirrily xx
Kirrily Lowe is a writer, poet, pastor and creative communicator from Sydney, Australia. Kirrily graduated from C3 College School of Ministry in the year 2000 with a Diploma in Christian Ministry. Since 2002, Kirrily has served with her husband, Tim, as Senior Minister of God In The City, a vibrant inner-city Church in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Kirrily is the author of The Invisible Tree series, a delightful series of Children’s Picture Books. And has just released her first book for women – The Invisible She – exploring feminine identity in Christ through biblical teaching, poetry, fashion and design. You can purchase her books or explore this material further at kirrilylowe.com.