Why not take all of me
Saturday, February 23, 2013
First Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022313.cfm
Matthew 5:44
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you.”
Children of the Heavenly Father see the sunrise everyday, unless (like today) the rain we need to live is falling. Jesus points out the obvious: God does not withhold these gifts from anyone. There is no condition put on his love. So we can be the same.
Certainly with others, but not just with others. Within myself, I can love my enemy instead of persecuting him. God does, and so can I.
I justify myself too often. I also tend not to act on my good intentions, especially when I intend to serve others in sacrificial ways. I avoid regularly scheduled prayer, even when I say how good it would be for me. I don’t fix breakfast for Margaret very often. And on the other hand, I complain about my own failures instead of giving them up to God. I am just scratching the surface here!  Luckily, I want to keep this under 350 words 🙂 …
These “enemies” of my righteous self do not respond to blame or punishment. They will not be cast out for more than a night; they returneth in the morning. Like Paul, I cry out, “What a wretched man I am! How shall rescue me from this body of death?”
Jesus does not remove my wretchedness; instead he loves it – not because it is wretched, but because it is me.  I matter more to him than what I do matters to him. I am a “being,” and never a “doing” to God.
Jesus tells me to do likewise, to love this shadow side of me, this “enemy.” I can embrace it, hold my wretchedness gently in my hands, and finally give it comfort. Be made perfect in this, he says. In Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, “perfect” becomes “merciful.”
I become perfect when I get to know all of me, when I am willing to touch my own sores and not turn away, when I give all of me up to God. Even when God does not approve of what I do, he loves me.  I do not have to approve of what I do in order to love all of me.  As that distinction moves from my head to my gut, my eyes clear and I see how much love there already is in me, for the enemies within and without.
Putting me out of my misery, Father, is a shortcut that you never take with us. You do not make part of me a scapegoat for the rest. As for myself, I am learning your way with me, Lord. Let it be unto me as you have said.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1147
