"From dust you came, to dust you will return."
Picked up an old journal yesterday that I used for a couple of years as a guide to prayer. Page after page listed the trials and joys of our congregation and of our family.
Turning pages brought me to timelines when people got better, or when things turned far worse. I could follow from doctor ordering tests, to not good, to chemo, and to requests for grace to bear the loss.
One young woman asked me to pray for her admission to a program at a local college. Later I prayed for her and for her fiance, and now that they are married and live far away, I pray.
I can flip pages in my mind and it's 1973. In one year I find true love and the Truth of God's grace. When it hit me just how far from God I was, and how incredible His offer of forgiveness was, I knew I had to change direction and live for Jesus.
Since then, God has blessed me with two sons, and chose me for use as a pastor for His people. I've made more mistakes than I can count, and yet I don't struggle as much with some sins that held me captive before.
Still, there are two things pressing on me as I begin the Journey through the 40 days of Lent.
Time is running...
and I am a long way from being the follower of Jesus my heart longs for. So I'm going into Lent with this on my mind.
Psalm 51 - The Message
1-3Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.
4-6 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
Amen!
ReplyDelete