Susan Narjala
Keeping it Real
A Prayer for 2025
The lion rips apart the carcass of the now-shredded buffalo. His mane shines a golden yellow in the rays of the morning sun. His cubs sit near him patiently, waiting their turn. They are not yet welcome to the meal. They’ve learned that dad has to lick his lips and walk away before they can snack.
We watch spellbound from our Land Cruiser parked about five feet from the pride in the flatlands of Maasai Mara in Kenya. It feels like I’m in a Nat Geo Wild documentary.
In the last few days, as we’ve driven through game parks during our family’s once-in-a-lifetime African safari experience, one thing becomes sharply evident: God is big and I am not.
As far as the eye can see, endless miles of the grasses of the Savannah stretch out between green hills. We’ve had up close and personal encounters with playful baby elephants and elegant-but-awkward giraffe. And yes, we’ve taken selfies with lions, cheetahs, and baboons. The incredible vastness of God’s splendor and creativity and majesty is magnified in this landscape. So is the infinitesimal smallness of me.
And yet, as I look back on the year gone by, I know that I’ve often lived like I’m the center of it all. It’s been about my feelings, my priorities, my goals, my relationships, my travel plans, my diet, my schedule my, my, my.
But through the year, God has gently been tilting my head toward heaven. He’s reminded me that it’s not about me at all. In fact, it’s all about Him.
As the curtain lifts on 2025, the prayer on my lips and my heart is this: “Lord, rid me of myself.”
It’s not an easy prayer. I’m giving the Lord permission to recreate and renew my selfish heart. Let me tell you, there’s deep-rooted me-ism that’s going to take some sharp garden implements to dig out. The pruning ain’t gonna be pretty. But I know that in laying down my rights there is freedom and fullness and fruitfulness.
In the words of Tim Keller: Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself…True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. The freedom of self-forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings.
As the new year begins, would you join me in praying for self-denial in an age where self-fulfilment, self-realization, and self-improvement are the reigning mantras?
Heavenly Father, Thank You for including me in the story that You are writing. It’s an incredible story of a God who was and is and is to come. It’s a redemptive story with Jesus at the center of it all.
As the new year unfolds, Lord, I pray for this truth to be the foundation of my life. Father, would You teach me to deny myself, to take up my cross, and follow You? Would You teach me what true gospel humility and self-forgetfulness look like? Would You remind me that it’s all about You?
So, Lord, I pray that You would rid me of myself. Rid me of my bent to selfishness. Rid me of my propensity to be prideful. Rid me of my self-righteousness. I long to glorify You. Help me get out of the way. May all glory and honor and power and majesty go to You and You alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Friend, this isn’t a one-and-done deal. I know I will need to pray this prayer over and over again. And I know I’ll never get it perfect. But may we get to experience that rest and freedom of self-forgetfulness in the new year.
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MEET SUSAN
Comments
14 Comments
Linda
I join you in praying self denial. What a compelling blog this new year of really taking the focus off me?
Susan Narjala
Amen. May this prayer be on our lips through the year. Blessings, Susan
Peter
Hmmm… chew, chew… contemplation to start 2025. Rich protein for readers. More safaris may be good for the soul (isn’t ‘soul language’ baptised Platonism?).
Hmmm… does the carnivore and carcass protocol suggest subordinate scavenging? Or is this wild imagination off on a scaremongering safari to the strawy Saharas of suspicion?
How could any attentive reader even query that the metaphor (or meat-aphor? Yikes!) of the male-first meal-time is to emphasise or endorse protein patriarchy?
Beyond any fanciful fears of lionisation, getting to the power point of the post : Does the malaise of my unrelenting me-itis reflect a deficiency in my understanding of Baptism and Eucharist?
Don’t both begin with and invite us to a graphic enactment of death? Is the sacred self-governance subverting strain of both these sacraments lost or neutered by reducing them to ‘symbols’, safe ‘external expression’ as opposed to how Orthodox Christianity has practiced and preached them: the power of participation? Both profoundly mystical and material? Both rooted in the sacred incarnation — that sublime expression of metaphysical and material meeting, not mingling? When did either of the sacraments become ‘hyper individualised’? Is my me-itis caught from a modern, pop-culture influenced evangelical imagination? Were we not baptised into Christ and His Body, a calling to a new identity in holy We-ism?
Is not the the sacrament of the bread and wine practiced participation in the same We-ism? Both via dying as me, then rising as we… IN Christ?
Susan Narjala
Plenty of “meat” to chew on there! Will have to re-read that a few times. The idea of holy we-ism is something I haven’t considered before. But, instinctively I’d like to say, “But, first, Jesus.” Hopefully, I will have more thoughts to share in the future. Thanks for sharing, Peter. Blessings, Susan
Jacob
Good discourse!
Shows His Power and Authority combined with grace and mercy and what is expected of us is humility. Reminds me of the verse:
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” 1 Peter 5:6.
Susan Narjala
Thank you. That’s a great verse. The “exalt” bit may not be in the world’s terms. And I need to be not just okay with that, but ti rejoice in that and continue to understand true humility. Blessings, Susan
Ted Senapatiratne
Thank You, Susan for your brutal honesty!
How I need this self check today, and every day in 2025!
Susan Narjala
Thanks for sharing, Ted. Yes, may the Lord continue to check our hearts today and every day! Amen. Blessings, Susan
Anita
Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing this! It was a perfect reminder and prayer for me to start my new year with and to pray regularly!
Susan Narjala
Amen. Thanks for sharing, Anita. May we pray this prayer regularly. Blessings, Susan
Bev
Thank you… thank you… thank you! I wrote down “become raw and get rid of my selfishness” before reading your words. You have written everything I felt and needed to say aloud. I appreciate your talent/gift for words. I know that 2025 will be a shedding and growing season in my life. Thanks again for sharing the prayer. Many blessings on you and your family for 2025.
Susan Narjala
Oh wow. Love that the Lord laid such similar words on your heart! That is amazing. May it be a year of shedding and growing for all of us. God bless. Susan
Charles
Beautiful reflection about “rid me of myself.”
Thanks Susan for this sharp message !. God bless
Susan Narjala
Thank you, Charles. God bless. Susan