Proverbs 31:25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Often times I am given a word by the Lord and it is up to me to search out His intentions. Today is was dignity. In this one current assignment I have found a difficult and demanding task. Within the bible there is a sense of being lifted up, worthiness in the eyes of others. Even the more straightforward dictionaries carry a sense of having earned a position of honor and respect based on someone else’s opinions.

It is the modern era of enlightenment that its use in moral, ethical, legal, medical, and political realms that the word has taken on ambiguous definitions. In sometimes it is purposely undefined as if it is a given, a thing understood without discussion. It was in this long list of arenas and usages that I lost my way. How could I bring this word into context and relativity to my readers when I could not get a firm grasp upon such an elusive subject? Then the Lord brought back into memory an event that happened many years ago.

An old woman I spied in an alley one day, obviously wearing everything she owned, because she had no place to keep them, searched the ally for discarded aluminum cans. She pushed a rusted ragged discarded shopping cart, filling it with cans she had found. As I approached her, the stench indicated she had not bathed perhaps since the last rains. I offered her money to help her. She pushed my hand away and said in a strong voice of conviction…

“I have my dignity.”

Personal dignity cannot be imposed nor defended by the opinions and standards of others. It is self-imposed by a strong belief system. In Christians it is faith based. Proverb 31:25.

Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

The Kingdom of God is like chess, the King cannot die.

For you who are not familiar with chess, a King either resigns because the game is hopeless or is forced to resign. The King is never captured or killed. This classic game of warfare is unique in that the number of pieces captured (killed) has no bearing on the outcome. It is possible to lose all your knights, rooks, bishops and even the Queen and still win the game.

So often we focus on scriptures like John 10:10a The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: where the focus is on the loss rather than our King. John 10:10b I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

We tie the abundant life with those things we think about which can be stolen, killed and destroyed. But in fact in our King’s Kingdom, we lose it all and still win. We can still have that abundant life even after losing it all.

Mark 10:21b One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Let me ask this pointed question; are you resigned to having it all?

If you are resigned to have “all of it” now, you have surrendered a winning position to the enemy.

Oh, yes and the other thing about chess which is so much like the Kingdom of God, the lowly pawn, which has no value, if it endures to the end, reaches the 8^th rank, is resurrected.

Mark 13:13b he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.