Two thoughts have run through my mind a lot during this Lenten season…
1. No matter what happens, I have to choose each day whom I will service. Even when I don’t feel like it, I still have to choose each day. As an old Bob Dylan song from the early 1980s says, “You may serve the devil or you may serve the Lord, but you have to serve somebody.” He’s right. For me, I have chosen that I will press on toward the goal, as the Apostle Paul says, serving God as best I can. When I am tempted to not press on, I think, “Where else would I go? He alone has the words of Eternal life.”
2. God wants his will done on earth as it is in heaven. Part of choosing God is deciding to surrender to his will. “Your kingdom come, your will be done… .” It’s hard for me to surrender to God’s will day by day, moment by moment. It’s hard for me to do what one line from the Serenity Prayer says: “Trusting that He will make all things new if I surrender to his will.” Some days I keep my arms crossed, which is no way to stand in God’s presence.
Is it hard for you to uncross your arms, stand naked in God’s presence and say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. But I am back today. I am willing to just be a hired servant, if you’d have me.”
In my heart, that’s where I want to be. So I keep coming back. So far, he keeps taking me back. That makes me feel loved, really loved.
