Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Finding the way

Monday, March 8, 2010

Luke 4:24, 28-30
In Nazareth's synagogue Jesus said to the people, "I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his hometown." ... All of them were furious and got up, drove him out of town and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Jesus grew up with these men and women. They knew him pretty well. They had a wife picked out for him, this favorite son of Nazareth: a carpenter of great skill and even a skilled teacher, already succeeding far beyond his station ... they could be proud of their native son. And coming home in the wake of stories of great miracles - just think how proud his mother must have been - so excited to be with him again, basking in her son's glory. She might have expected Jesus to settle back down and bless their town with his teaching and his carpentry and ... yes, his miracles. And she knew, she remembered ... how he had been born.

But Jesus had been shaped beyond the vessel any of them knew. Submissive and meek as he was before God, he refused to be defined by anyone around him, including his family. "Get thee behind me, Satan!" "You must hate your father and your mother and even your own life in order to follow me." God showed him a path through the wilderness, and that was what he followed.

Often when I pray I ask God to show me his path through the decisions of the day, guiding my thoughts and words and actions, blessing them. The wilderness is very personal for each one of us, with pits and pitfalls, temptations and distractions that masquerade as real goals. It's easy to head the wrong way. I need the guardian angel's prodding, God's whisper in my ear. Go left, young man. Now right. Now left again.

Momentum takes me toward home or away: each simple word I speak to myself builds into thoughts, which generate emotion; then I am making decisions and without much warning, actions follow one another like dominoes stacked in a row and falling fast.

This is just the way life is - no need to make such a big deal about it. Why call it a wilderness? There are many trails clearly marked, blazed before by myself and others. They promise to take me to the destination that I choose. Usually that is just what they will do, if I can stay on them long enough.

This didn't work for Jesus. He was so sensitive to God's voice directing him that he didn't follow the established paths for long. And he asks us to follow him with less rather than more regard to the paths recommended by others. Listen every moment for God's direction, Jesus says. Submit to that and nothing else. Don't' be afraid. And forget the fun of being a hometown hero. Look up!

Let me hear the music of your voice, Lord, among the noises of my mind and my TV and my friends and my fears. Sweet sirens draw me toward subtle comfort, but then I go dimwitted into death. When I listen to the warm depth of your voice, Lord, nothing matches its tones of truth and wisdom and love. And there is no home like heaven.

Devotions Archive

Finding the way

Monday, March 8, 2010