A Lenten Journey: Climbing to the Cross – FOURTH SUNDAY

Ephesians 2:1-10, The Message 
It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
_______
How many times in my life have I forgotten the powerful truth of this passage?
Too many to count. 
As a young Christian, busy with school, youth group, life – 
     I believed that somehow I could be my own savior… 
          if I just worked hard enough at it. 
As a young (and not-so-young) mom, 
     I tried really hard to be my children’s savior, 
          working to ‘fix’ their lives. 
As a sixty-something, 
     I’ve tried to fix my aging mom, 
          to figure out the next best thing to help her re-find  herself, the mom I’ve known all these years. 
And all the time
     I do battle with a deeply embedded works mentality 
          that shouts at me, 
     “DO more, serve more, read more, study more, pray more…” 
But if I’m reading these words of Paul correctly, 
     most of the time I get the cart before the horse. 
Ten verses here – and it’s only at the very last breath of them that anything at all is said about working. 
The whole rest of this prose-poem is 
     about being,
     about accepting the gift,
     about God going ahead and preparing the way,
     about the immensity of Love that sweeps away all my paltry efforts and says, 
     “Enough. 
          Relax. 
               See this beautiful package right here in my hands? I’ve picked it out especially for you, 
     wrapped it with beautiful human skin, 
          given it a heart big enough to hold the universe, 
               and here it is. 
Just.For.You.”
Yes, indeed, there is good work for me to do – and for you, too. 
But first comes the gift – 
     receiving it with humility,
          savoring it, 
               leaning into it, 
                    contemplating it, 
          saying thank you, thank you, thank you.
_______
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord God Almighty, for the gift of Jesus Christ, who came to rescue us from ourselves, to give us life and hope, and to strengthen us from the inside out for the good works you ask us to join you in doing. Oh, help me to keep things straight – gift first, work second. Remind me that Love comes first, always.  


Get a personal letter from Diana twice a month

Sign up for *More Wondering. . . * a monthly personal letter from Diana to you, available only to email subscribers. As thanks, receive a copy of Diana's new ebook,30 Ways of Aging Gracefully.

powered by TinyLetter

To receive blog posts in your inbox, sign up below.


Comments

  1. Very nicely said. 

    Thank you Lord for sending your son. 

  2. Thanks for your comment, Joyful. Hope your Sunday is a blessed one!

  3. Gift first, work second. You make it sound simple, Diana. 

    And that’s the trick. It really is, simple, I think–until I go trying to overthink everything. As we discussed over at my place today, this resonates. Deeply.

  4. Simple?  Yes, I think so. But easy??? NOT IN A MILLION YEARS. It goes against all our natural inclinations, what our culture tells us, what our families too often instill in us. So if it’s possible for something to be simple AND complicated, that’s what this is to actually live, seems to me. Thanks for coming by, Sheila. Always glad to see you here.

  5. So simple and hard. Like staying in the present. It isn’t complicated. But it isn’t easy, either.

    Thank you, Diana. I’ve been way too much of a “homebody” lately. I’m so glad I came by. 

  6. Glenda Childers says

    Gift first, work second … a great plumb line.

    Fondly,
    Glenda

  7. Exactly right, Glenda. Thanks.

  8. Thank you for the encouragement..Your story sounds so much like mine..I just finished a season of trying to be my aging mother’s saviour..Time to rest at and truly accept that He loves us because we are His creation..it is all a gift, isn’t?

  9. You are so welcome, Alicia. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. And it’s so hard to realize that we cannot save our mos. And also freeing to realize that they are safe in the hands of Jesus even when they begin to feel so lost to us. They are not lost to him. Blessings as you rest.

  10. dtrautwein (at) gmail (dot )com – don’t know where to put my address on this blog, I am such a techie failure!

  11. alprazolam buy xanax dosage blue – xanax taper schedule

  12. buy diazepam high von diazepam – buy valium diazepam usa

  13. buy diazepam generic valium 10mg valium 1mg xanax – ativan vs valium anxiety

  14. alprazolam 20 mg xanax side effects – cover up xanax drug test

  15. zolpidem cost ambien side effects muscle twitching – zolpidem ambien urine urinalysis

  16. diazepam no prescription diazepam 2mg para que serve – diazepam side effects for cats

  17. xanax anxiety whats street value 1mg xanax – xanax side effects withdrawal symptoms

  18. diazepam and dosage diazepam dose bluelight – diazepam kopen

  19. order xanax what does generic xanax look like pill – alprazolam orally disintegrating tablet 0.5mg

  20. cheap ativan how many 1mg lorazepam to overdose – buy ativan no prescription

  21. buy diazepam online diazepam z 3926 5 – diazepam drug effects

  22. order ativan ativan vs xanax insomnia – ativan dosage migraine

  23. buy xanax online 8 bars of xanax – xanax side effects 1 mg

  24. cheap ambien online online doctor prescription ambien – ambien side effects in children

  25. carisoprodol 350 mg soma drug test detection – buy soma online no prescription cheap

  26. buy soma online soma medication description – carisoprodol good

  27. generic valium damien hirst valium for sale – valium dosage toddlers

  28. ambien online without rx where can you buy ambien over the counter – much does generic ambien cost

  29. buy valium online klonopin vs valium for anxiety – valium tablets side effects

  30. generic ambien buy ambien cr free – ambien side effects quitting

  31. soma muscle relaxant fail drug test soma – withdrawal symptoms of carisoprodol

  32. buy valium online how to order valium online – can you buy valium spain

  33. online ambien ambien withdrawal + fever – ambien use in pregnancy