Imagine that your dad is dying,
so close that Hospice has been called in.
Suppose at the beginning of all this,
you had made a deal with God...
Give him 2 years and I will give myself to you, forever.
And God doesn't make that deal with you,
and you are so angry with Him,
angry at everyone and everything.
The anger is consuming you so completely,
that you can't see straight.
You don't know to handle all this
and it isn't going the way you imagined it...
We have all been there. The deal-making is the worst. Either way, you can't win. If you get what you are trading for when it comes to pay, it doesn't seem like the thing you want to do, then. You dodged another bullet and when the time comes to make another deal, you will deal with it then. If you lose your trade, you couldn't care less anyway.
It is not about the deals we want to make when we are up against the wall. It is not about offering God everything and then being angry when He doesn't see it our way. It is about being all in with God, no matter what and I admit, that is tough. I have tried to imagine myself now in that unasked for journey and while I have practiced it over and over in my mind, there are no guarantees. You have to be about it everyday. This is an excerpt from a Commencement Speech given by Apple/Pixar CEO, Steve Jobs.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.
I want to tell the son, you are already naked.
I want to tell the son, that accepting you will be dead someday, will change the life you have now.
I want to tell the son to run to the Son.
The only right spot to put the Masking Tape Jesus picture that Gage made me last week was on my nightstand. It seemed so natural, like it was made for that spot. It is the last thing I see at night and the first thing I see in the morning. When I woke up very early this morning, I turned on the light and saw my picture and instantly thought of the son. May the Peace that is being offered to him this very moment, that is his - just for the taking - may he reach out and grab it and not let go, ever again...
