Morning Prayer

Reflecting on 1 Macabees  2:15-29 leads to a morning prayer.  Is it really your will I am doing Lord, or is it my will disguised as yours?

The Coins

When I was a radio DJ years ago, playing the little records with the big holes, we did a lot of  broadcasts from car dealerships and furniture stores urging people to come out for great savings and free stuff.  At one of my first such broadcasts, my program director told me to introduce myself to ten people.
"They will then go and tell ten others that they 'know' you."  Sure enough.  After awhile you would hear from people who thought you were their close friend simply because they met you once long ago at one of the remote broadcasts.

This all comes to mind after reading Luke today (19:11-27.)  We are all given the gift of God's love (the coin.)   If we actually use that gift we will come to know and love God even more.  We will be living the gospel.  

There are a lot of us, however...and I confess to having been this way myself for a long time...that feel that just because we know of God, it is enough and that our life will be rewarded.  That's knowing God in much the same way the radio listeners thought they knew me.  They didn't and I didn't and that's not enough.  We cannot coast through life in this casual knowing.  The more we live in the love of God, the more we know him, love him and serve him, the greater the reward.  

It's all about that relationship with God.  Casual ones don't quite make it.  There's nothing casual about real love.

What's Your Limb?

Zaccheus goes out on a limb to catch sight of Jesus.  He cannot see him on his own, so he needs to find a way to get a glimpse of Christ.  An act of faith and a response of faith.  What's our limb?  What do we do to put ourselves in a place to see Christ once we realize...like Zaccheus...that we are unable to do so on our own.   And when we catch that glimpse, how does it change our lives?