Get out of the way!

"It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us...Say the welcoming word to God - "Jesus is my Master" - embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not doing anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation." Romans 10:8-10, The Message.

I don't know why we make this life of faith so complicated, but we do. It's that life becomes so often about us rather than about God. That is what St. Paul says, that the quest for God (or religion) centers on us rather than on God. And when our focus becomes selfish, it becomes sinful and instead of moving towards God, we move in the opposite direction.

In other words, our greatest obstacle in receiving all that God has in store for us, in trusting in the one who loves us, even in fully believing in Christ is...us!

A simple question, then, for the day...are you in the way?

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God has done for you is the best thing you can do for Him." Romans 12:1, The Message.

I know that in my personal life of faith, I struggle with what constitutes my needed attention and what becomes selfish. I struggle because many times my identity as a person is often equated with my profession, my vocation. So sometimes even personal time feels selfish. Yet the struggle is important because I've lived without it before and when the struggle doesn't exist it's because I'm too focused on myself to see the bigger picture, the free life with God. In other words, I often get in the way.

I've discovered that the answer is to dedicate each day to God, to choose to be a servant, to choose to have faith. It's the choice to get out of the way and see God work in and through me.

That's what God simply wants from all of us to get out of the way!

Peace ><>
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