Words from WW Blog

My life is filled with dreams, wishes, and possibilities. Some of the dreams are out of my control, such as being a 6’6″ shooting guard for the Boston Celtics. Instead, I’m a 69-year-old 5’7″ slow guy playing 6 A.M. hoops at the local YMCA.

But I have other possibilities that are…well, possibilities. Such as losing ten pounds before my physician tells me I need to lose ten pounds. Of course, my love for fried foods “weighs” against that goal. After all, I was born in Kentucky where the motto is “If you can eat it, we can fry it!”

The “I-would-like-tos” of life always have an opposing force pulling on the other end of the tug-of-war rope. I find this to be especially true when it comes to my desire to walk closely with God. Like New Year’s Resolutions, I have an unspoken list of spiritual desires. The phrase “I would like to…” is completed with a wide range of disciplines and practices. It isn’t the Lord who is holding me back from meeting the need. It’s that personal struggle, dare I say, that all of us deal with. It’s the resistance to the intimacy of God, and yet, at the same time, we long for the closeness of God.

Scripture is filled with active verbs that direct us in the ways of God. For example, 1 Thessalonians 5:7, without any confusing language, tells us to “Pray continually.” In another situation, Paul and Silas tell the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:31). Still in another story, Jesus tells His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15)

It hits me that rarely does scripture put the words “Would you like to…” in front of a command or directive. Jesus says, “Follow me”. He tells the waves of the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” He tells Zacchaeus to “Come down!”

Sometimes our spirituality resembles our ordering from a restaurant menu: “I would like to have the fried chicken…dark meat only…mashed potatoes…gravy on the side…a side salad with ranch dressing…and sweet tea to drink, no ice.”

If the server responded by telling us what we are GOING to have, not what we would like, most of us would balk, back up, and find a more hospitable dining establishment to help us fulfill our wishes.

“God, I would like to spend more time in prayer.”

It would knock our socks off to hear a voice from “yonder” reply, “Then pray! Pray continually, pray without reservation, pray with compassion, pray boldly.”

The simplicity of the directives of God are frequently seen through the complications of our own hesitancy. Sad to say, but it often is only when the urgency of our predicament limits the options of how we respond that we fall at the feet of Jesus.

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This entry was posted on June 4, 2023 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.