OK, how could God be lonely? He's got everything, right?
Except...us.
He doesn't have us...we have to give ourselves to Him freely. Otherwise we're puppets.
And it's not OK when we don't give ourselves. He's hurt.
Witness the Garden of Gethsemane...Jesus asked His three closest friends to watch with Him while He prayed...and they fell asleep.
They say that God has got it all,
but as Christ neared His mortal end,
He felt the desperate need to call
upon the love of His best friends.
He went with Peter, John and James,
that while He prayed, watch they might keep;
when he returned, He called their names,
and found they'd fallen fast asleep.
He woke them, and then asked again,
that they might help Him through His trial,
but they couldn't understand His pain,
His sweat of blood, and all the while
He took the cup that would not pass,
they dozed upon the dewy grass.
So there you go. You have a power God doesn't have...the choice to give yourself to Him...
...or not.
What will you do?
This became important to me lately, because while I received a healing from a lethal and sudden illness, the healing didn't apply to cancer...on that front, things are worse.
And God said, "Cancer is your Calvary. The healing...it was Me, being your Simon of Cyrene."
There was a wistfulness in His tone, a hesitancy.
As if He thought that I might respond in anger, and cast Him aside, in anger and disappointment.
I had the power, in that moment, to break His heart, and there was nothing He could do about it.
I didn't, but that's a story for another time.
Music from Joan Osborne, with One Of Us. (Please click here if your device doesn't display the video.)
Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.
Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.
Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.
Andrew, you are so right. The choice is ours - each and every day - to give ourselves, and of ourselves, to Him. Powerful to think on, isn't it? Bless you, friend!
ReplyDeleteWhat a journey you are walking, Andrew. Your faithful insights are always so powerful, inspirational, and often compel me to evaluate my own. Thank you for your writing and your spirit. You are always in my heart! Karen (FMF #9)
ReplyDeleteAndrew, thank you for giving me something to ponder. Confirms that spiritual life consists of a living, breathing relationship. As the song says, "He knows my name."
ReplyDeleteSome really poignant truth there, Andrew. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your choice to persevere brings God a lot of joy.
ReplyDeleteIt's shocking, isn't it, when we're confronted with the immense power God has given us to choose Him or not. I love that you are cognizant of that every day and continue to choose Him.
ReplyDeleteWow, Andrew! I had never thought about it that way before. Beautiful post and sonnet.
ReplyDeleteThank God we are free in Christ and certainly not puppets!
ReplyDeleteYes what a true sentiment. Sending love and prayers to you and Barb.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Thank you for continuing to encourage us with your posts and sonnets, even in the midst of your own suffering. I was not planning on participating in this week's link-up because at first I couldn't think of anything to write about that prompt, but then I read the sonnet you used to comment on someone else's post--“Dude, get to work!
ReplyDeleteI didn’t give you writing skill
so you could just sit back and chill!”--and that convicted me. So I got to it, and posted #29. Thanks for kicking my butt (even though I'm much older than you, and your adoptive grams, haha).
but you see God does have a choice... he can harden us against him, or soften our hearts toward him. When we accept that softening, he rejoices. :)
ReplyDelete