Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 14:28-30

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”

Prayer

You trick us, Jesus, and your words are not fair. How can we count the cost of following you? We cannot read the future. Our eyes are too weak to penetrate time. The cost of serving you can never be counted in advance.

We have no advance warning system to alert us how breathtakingly difficult life can become. We possess no cup capable of measuring our sweat or tears in advance. We do not know what scenes we will be forced to watch or what suffering our mortal bodies will bear before we are done. Already I carry a host of images that break my heart, and I know there are more to come. Just what? Who can know?

Perhaps that is blessing. If we knew … could we live … now?

But I fear my questions miss the mark. It doesn’t seem to matter to you how hard or how much struggle will test our strength. For, there is no bait and switch with you, Jesus. You ask for all, for my life, from the beginning, so does it matter what is to come? Either I enter the struggle to give all--whatever comes--or I refuse it.

I entered that struggle long ago. That foundation was laid by loving souls who moved me to love you. Now, in the midst of life, I don’t know if I am a capable of finishing what they started decades past. I understand the weakness of human resolve all too well--and trust it thoroughly, especially my own.

I know neither the future nor my own strength, Jesus. But I do know you. And it is you, not me, who completes the tower. So take my fear and weakness, my uncertainty and questions, and melt them all in the heat of your love. That will be enough for me.

Pr. David L. Miller