How much am I giving/not giving in service to God?
Little kids fascinate me – especially when I realize how much their real, uninhibited behavior mirrors that of the quiet, more reserved actions of adults.
When forced to clean the playroom, they’ll move a couple objects around and then get distracted by one toy or another and start playing. If I then interrupt their play to ask them why they are not cleaning, they say “It’s too hard. It’ll take too long. I didn’t make the mess.”
When I ask them to face each other and apologize for something, they have trouble with the eye contact. They usually look somewhat around each other’s mouths before quickly saying “I’m sorry” with each letter being a sharp, staccato note.
When I ask them to look at something they’ve broken on the ground, their eyes look everywhere in the room but right at the object… I guess they assume if they don’t look at it, they don’t have to acknowledge what they’ve done.
They are kids having kid reactions to kid problems. As an adult though, how many times do I claim the work isn’t mine, advert my eyes, or do the bear minimum a situation requires?
I was scouring the internet for a prayer to use in this weeks prayer service, and I found one on a random uploaded word document. It was attributed to Joe Seramane from South Africa.
And man did the words speak to me.
I hope they speak to you.
Let this be our prayer today.
“You asked for my hands
that you might use them for your purpose.
I gave them for a moment,
then withdrew them, for the work was hard.
You asked for my mouth
to speak out against injustice;
I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused.
You asked for my eyes
to see the pain of poverty;
I closed them, for I did not want to see.
You asked for my life
that you might work through me.
I gave a small part, that I might not get ‘too involved’.
Lord forgive me for my calculated efforts to serve you
only when it is convenient for me to do so,
only in those places where it is safe to do so and
only with those who make it easy to do so.
Father, forgive me, renew me,
send me out as a usable instrument
that I might take seriously
the meaning of your cross.”
Amen.
