Jesus told a parable about a rich man who thought he could store up all his wealth, eat, drink and be merry , only to find that his number was up. At the end, Jesus sums it up in a moral – which it is highly tempting to apply to a certain candidate for President:
‘So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
What does it mean to be rich towards God? And why would we need to be rich towards the Maker of all worlds, the One who has everything? What does God need from us? Nothing… but God wants our love, our lives, our trust, and our willingness to receive God’s gifts without trying to repay them. God desires our presence in relationship, to love and be beloved.
The man in the parable thinks he can buy everything he needs. But when his life suddenly ends, he finds out that in his greed he’d lost out on the one commodity that lasts for an eternity – love. He’d invested in the wrong places.
When we’re concerned with storing up treasure for ourselves, that’s where our focus is. When we’re storing up treasure in heaven, that’s where our focus is. A God-ward focus inevitably leads our attention to the most vulnerable of God’s children, because God’s concerns become ours. Being rich toward God means blessing God’s beloveds.
Sometimes we go backward, giving to people in need and just “checking in” with God on occasion. That’s well and good – but it means we’re always in control of the giving. Something amazing happens when we let God be the focus; then our giving to others feels just right, even when it’s more than we ever imagined we could give. (And just a note: I’m not there yet – though I’ve felt it from time to time…).
How might you make God even more the focus your time, your energy, your emotional life? Where do you feel the Spirit nudging you to share your wealth? Everyone has to find their own way – all I can do is tell you that our destination is Love. And that is the one thing money just can’t buy.
7-28-16 - All That We Can't Leave Behind
And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.
– U2, Walk On (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
This song came to mind as I reflected on Jesus’ parable of the rich man who is so focused on acquiring and storing his many assets. This fictional fellow thought he’d guaranteed his security – but think again!
Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
Whose will they be? What will be left of our legacy after we’ve gone – whether it’s moving from a beloved community or leaving the planet for good? What good will all the things we invest in, material and otherwise, do us when we’re dead? Perhaps a rich man’s children will inherit, and sometimes carry on the good – and often they’ll turn out lazy and self-indulgent, expecting hand-outs. Can we secure our future and that of our descendents?
The invitation here, as always, is to put our trust in God, not in our financial security, and to live our lives on a daily basis, not in five-year increments. All the things we put our trust in can fail us – people, machinery, the very earth sometimes. We go through life assuming elevators will not snap their cables, or roads collapse, or partners become unfaithful. We’re pretty sure banks won’t fail – but a whole lot of other financial “security” didn’t turn out to be so secure in 2008. What will it take for us to truly put our weight on the provision and power and love of God?
Here’s a thought exercise: is there any possession or amount of money you would refuse to part with if it would save the person you love the most in the whole world? If you needed to be emptied in order to receive the greatest gift, on what might you loosen your grip? That time will come when our grip is loosened for us, and then we will all part with our riches. What if we started to live in that kind of freedom while we’re still alive in this world?
Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.
– U2, Walk On (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
This song came to mind as I reflected on Jesus’ parable of the rich man who is so focused on acquiring and storing his many assets. This fictional fellow thought he’d guaranteed his security – but think again!
Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
Whose will they be? What will be left of our legacy after we’ve gone – whether it’s moving from a beloved community or leaving the planet for good? What good will all the things we invest in, material and otherwise, do us when we’re dead? Perhaps a rich man’s children will inherit, and sometimes carry on the good – and often they’ll turn out lazy and self-indulgent, expecting hand-outs. Can we secure our future and that of our descendents?
The invitation here, as always, is to put our trust in God, not in our financial security, and to live our lives on a daily basis, not in five-year increments. All the things we put our trust in can fail us – people, machinery, the very earth sometimes. We go through life assuming elevators will not snap their cables, or roads collapse, or partners become unfaithful. We’re pretty sure banks won’t fail – but a whole lot of other financial “security” didn’t turn out to be so secure in 2008. What will it take for us to truly put our weight on the provision and power and love of God?
Here’s a thought exercise: is there any possession or amount of money you would refuse to part with if it would save the person you love the most in the whole world? If you needed to be emptied in order to receive the greatest gift, on what might you loosen your grip? That time will come when our grip is loosened for us, and then we will all part with our riches. What if we started to live in that kind of freedom while we’re still alive in this world?
Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
7-27-16 - Storage
Is it God’s little joke to have me exploring this parable this week, when the abundance of my “stuff” is so literally in my face? Why am I bringing some 25 boxes of books to DC? Why all the pretty things that gather dust on end tables? I’ve culled papers, clothing, books and kitchenware, yet there’s still a lot going on that moving truck. BUT I will never resort to putting my stuff long-term in a storage unit, just hoping I’ll use it some day. Therein lies insanity – and given the number of storage facilities disfiguring our landscapes in this country, there seems to be a lot of insanity around.
Jesus begins his parable about the pitfalls of greed by talking of storage units:
Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
Building bigger barns. There’s a metaphor for acquisition fever. Many of us go through life acquiring things and then needing larger houses in which to store it all. And the name for that is not success or prosperity – the spiritual name for it is greed. Greed can be defined as having more than we need and wanting more still.
So, are we all greed-ridden? I confessed yesterday that I have more than I need. I suspect most people reading this have more than they need, and we can all come up with more things that we want or think we need. Such is the human condition. How then are we to receive such a teaching? Hanging our heads in despair and walking away from the Gospel altogether, because we’re not the kind of disciples that leave it all to follow Jesus? That kind of resignation only leads us deeper into the worship of stuff, because then we need stuff to stuff down the feelings of guilt and inadequacy. What might we do instead?
We can put Jesus first, every day. Give God the best part of the day, when we’re freshest and our spirits are most open. As we grow in relationship with God, our priorities inevitably shift. We may still enjoy the abundance we have, but with less fear of losing it and more joy in sharing it. The more we give it away, the less we worry about how to store it.
I’ve read that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have decided to live on 1 percent of their income and give away the other 99 percent. At their level of wealth, I’m sure they still have plenty. Even so, it’s a an inspiring choice, one we might begin to move toward. If we give away the biblical standard of 10 percent of our income (gross or net, you choose), we still have 90 percent to play with. That’s a lot!
The antidote to greed is generosity. As we excel in giving, we will delight in God’s grace. No need to sock that away - it never runs out.
Jesus begins his parable about the pitfalls of greed by talking of storage units:
Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
Building bigger barns. There’s a metaphor for acquisition fever. Many of us go through life acquiring things and then needing larger houses in which to store it all. And the name for that is not success or prosperity – the spiritual name for it is greed. Greed can be defined as having more than we need and wanting more still.
So, are we all greed-ridden? I confessed yesterday that I have more than I need. I suspect most people reading this have more than they need, and we can all come up with more things that we want or think we need. Such is the human condition. How then are we to receive such a teaching? Hanging our heads in despair and walking away from the Gospel altogether, because we’re not the kind of disciples that leave it all to follow Jesus? That kind of resignation only leads us deeper into the worship of stuff, because then we need stuff to stuff down the feelings of guilt and inadequacy. What might we do instead?
We can put Jesus first, every day. Give God the best part of the day, when we’re freshest and our spirits are most open. As we grow in relationship with God, our priorities inevitably shift. We may still enjoy the abundance we have, but with less fear of losing it and more joy in sharing it. The more we give it away, the less we worry about how to store it.
I’ve read that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have decided to live on 1 percent of their income and give away the other 99 percent. At their level of wealth, I’m sure they still have plenty. Even so, it’s a an inspiring choice, one we might begin to move toward. If we give away the biblical standard of 10 percent of our income (gross or net, you choose), we still have 90 percent to play with. That’s a lot!
The antidote to greed is generosity. As we excel in giving, we will delight in God’s grace. No need to sock that away - it never runs out.
7-26-16 - Greed
In our gospel story for Sunday, Jesus is approached by a man whose brother has received their father’s full inheritance and isn’t inclined to share it. And just as Jesus refused to get pulled into a sibling conflict with Martha and Mary, he displays similarly excellent boundaries here. He’s not as interested in whether or not the younger brother gets his share of the legacy as he is in the health of his soul:
But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’
What if that verse were plastered all over the financial centers of the world, and the tony residential sections, and on shopping sites? Why, the world economy might come crashing down upon itself. (But wait, it often seems close to doing that anyway…) How many people do you know who live as if accumulating possessions and securing their financial future is exactly what life consists of?
I'm not going to get judgmental, for I make more than I need and am invested in securing my future too. And, in the midst of packing to move, I couldn't be more aware of the abundance of my possessions! Sure, I give away a fair amount, but that’s not the point. The point is in where our deepest priorities lie. How much of our time and energy go into acquiring things and keeping track of what we have? What would we let go of if someone we loved needed it? How much money would we part with? How many possessions? How simply are we willing to live?
These questions are intertwined, for living simply can be a choice we make because we realize someone else needs our stuff more than we do, or because we want to lower our overhead in order to release more funds to people who need them. We get to the point where we’re willing to part with our stuff not only for people whom we love, but for people we don’t even know.
It comes down to what questions we’re asking of ourselves: how much do I need to feel secure, or how much can I release to feel free? Are we living by fear or living by faith? Greed and faith cannot occupy the same space. As much room as we give to one, the less there is for the other.
Or, as I once read in an interview with the actor John Heard, “When you’re living by fear, you’re always looking for security. When you’re living by faith, you’re always looking for freedom.”
But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’
What if that verse were plastered all over the financial centers of the world, and the tony residential sections, and on shopping sites? Why, the world economy might come crashing down upon itself. (But wait, it often seems close to doing that anyway…) How many people do you know who live as if accumulating possessions and securing their financial future is exactly what life consists of?
I'm not going to get judgmental, for I make more than I need and am invested in securing my future too. And, in the midst of packing to move, I couldn't be more aware of the abundance of my possessions! Sure, I give away a fair amount, but that’s not the point. The point is in where our deepest priorities lie. How much of our time and energy go into acquiring things and keeping track of what we have? What would we let go of if someone we loved needed it? How much money would we part with? How many possessions? How simply are we willing to live?
These questions are intertwined, for living simply can be a choice we make because we realize someone else needs our stuff more than we do, or because we want to lower our overhead in order to release more funds to people who need them. We get to the point where we’re willing to part with our stuff not only for people whom we love, but for people we don’t even know.
It comes down to what questions we’re asking of ourselves: how much do I need to feel secure, or how much can I release to feel free? Are we living by fear or living by faith? Greed and faith cannot occupy the same space. As much room as we give to one, the less there is for the other.
Or, as I once read in an interview with the actor John Heard, “When you’re living by fear, you’re always looking for security. When you’re living by faith, you’re always looking for freedom.”
7-25-16 - It's Not Fair!
I just spent an afternoon with siblings. They along very well, but even so there was a bit of, “Mom, tell her to give me some!” it’s human nature to want what someone else has. So it is in the story Jesus tells in this week’s Gospel passage – a story that is prompted by a sibling’s complaint.
Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’
This man may well have had a legitimate gripe – some laws of inheritance favor the firstborn, who gets everything. It must have been customary for the heir to share – and this one hadn’t. The man appealed to Jesus to use his moral authority to compel his elder brother to generosity – or at least to some behavior that was “fair.” But fairness is a pretty subjective category, isn’t it? “What’s fair is fair” has no reliable measure – it all depends on where we’re looking.
It’s easy to get worked up about fairness when we feel we’re receiving less. But when we’re the ones who have more, often through no effort or intrinsic worth of our own, but because of where we were born, who we’re related to, the color of our skin, where we could afford to go to school or our family’s wealth, we are often less concerned about what’s fair or not. Similarly, when someone’s taken something from us or cheated us, we want equity, but we are rarely as aware about the ways we may injure others.
The Life of God is not about fairness. It’s about unmerited grace. It’s about abundant love, life, joy, peace – and often wealth as well – not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because we are loved beyond measure, because we are forgiven our debts toward God and invited to live in such a way that we extend the same grace to those whom we feel owe us something. This brother did not necessarily “deserve” a part of the inheritance. He, like us, was being invited to trust that he would have enough, and not to be too picky about where that “enough” comes from.
Is there something gnawing at you, something you feel you’re owed, that’s been withheld? Can you offer that to God, trusting that you will have what you need even if it comes from another source? Can you release the person you feel owes you from obligation, moving into freedom for yourself and that person?
When we really focus on how much God has given us, we begin to be grateful that God isn’t “fair.”
Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’
This man may well have had a legitimate gripe – some laws of inheritance favor the firstborn, who gets everything. It must have been customary for the heir to share – and this one hadn’t. The man appealed to Jesus to use his moral authority to compel his elder brother to generosity – or at least to some behavior that was “fair.” But fairness is a pretty subjective category, isn’t it? “What’s fair is fair” has no reliable measure – it all depends on where we’re looking.
It’s easy to get worked up about fairness when we feel we’re receiving less. But when we’re the ones who have more, often through no effort or intrinsic worth of our own, but because of where we were born, who we’re related to, the color of our skin, where we could afford to go to school or our family’s wealth, we are often less concerned about what’s fair or not. Similarly, when someone’s taken something from us or cheated us, we want equity, but we are rarely as aware about the ways we may injure others.
The Life of God is not about fairness. It’s about unmerited grace. It’s about abundant love, life, joy, peace – and often wealth as well – not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because we are loved beyond measure, because we are forgiven our debts toward God and invited to live in such a way that we extend the same grace to those whom we feel owe us something. This brother did not necessarily “deserve” a part of the inheritance. He, like us, was being invited to trust that he would have enough, and not to be too picky about where that “enough” comes from.
Is there something gnawing at you, something you feel you’re owed, that’s been withheld? Can you offer that to God, trusting that you will have what you need even if it comes from another source? Can you release the person you feel owes you from obligation, moving into freedom for yourself and that person?
When we really focus on how much God has given us, we begin to be grateful that God isn’t “fair.”
7-22-16 - How Much More!
Break out the birthday cake – today is Water Daily’s third anniversary! I started out with this passage on this date three summers ago. And so, in honor of that (and because I’m trying to transition out of two jobs, see a lot of beloved people, and pack up a four-bedroom house so it fits into two and am slightly pressed for time… ) I am going to reuse the last post in that week of 2013.
“Teach us how to pray,” Jesus’ disciples ask him. He offers a pretty solid outline. Then he switches perspective, to how God responds to our prayers. He tells a somewhat amusing story about a guy being woken up in the middle of the night by a friend in need, who responds not to the friend’s need, but to his persistence. Jesus’ punch line is, “‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” In case they didn’t get it the first time, he says, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Does this mean we get everything we ask for in prayer? Find everything we’re looking for? Every door we knock on is opened to us? I don’t know about your life, but mine hasn’t always gone that way. That disjoint is enough to put some people off the whole enterprise of prayer.
Prayer is not a laundry list of things we want presented to genie. Prayer is a conversation in the context of a living relationship. We make our requests because God invites us to, the same way a human parent wants her children to ask for the unicorn even if there’s no way to grant that wish – you want the conversation to reflect her heart. And you’re unlikely to give her a viper instead.
So God, the Father in heaven, Jesus suggests, wants us to ask for the desires of our hearts, wants us to seek the truth, wants us to knock on the doors separating us from divine presence. And does Jesus say we will get what we “pray for?” He goes us one better: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’”
Maybe the Holy Spirit doesn’t sound like much if you wanted healing for a loved one, or a better job. Yet the gift of the Spirit encompasses everything. The Holy Spirit brings the life of God into our hearts and minds and bodies. With more of the Spirit alive in us, we are so much better equipped to help bring about healing, to use our gifts at a higher level of functioning, to dwell in the kind of peace that enables us to bring joy and light into all kinds of situations. The Spirit equips us for ministry and gives all kinds of other gifts… love, joy, patience, forebearance. The Spirit prays through us, we are told in Romans – and you can be pretty sure God will answer a prayer that started with God.
How about today we sit down in stillness for a few minutes, take a few deep “in-spiring” breaths, let out some stale thoughts and feelings on the exhales, and then invite the Holy Spirit to come and play. “Spirit of God,” you might say (or “Spirit of Christ”), “I’d like to feel your presence in me. I’d like to feel the peace you bring. I’d like to know what you’re praying through me, what holy encounters you might be equipping me for. I’d like to make more space for you.”
Pay attention to what you feel in your body - do you feel energy anywhere? A tingle? A relaxing? A rush? Sometimes we have a physical response to the Spirit’s visits.
Pay attention to what you feel in your mind and in your spirit – do any images take shape? Do you receive any words or conversation or a desire to do something, pray for someone, go somewhere?
Write it down if you noted anything significant. Share it with someone. If you don’t sense anything, that’s okay – God may be taking some time, or your receptors need some tuning. Keep at it – the time we spend inviting more of God’s life into our lives is never wasted.
“Teach us how to pray,” Jesus’ disciples ask him. He offers a pretty solid outline. Then he switches perspective, to how God responds to our prayers. He tells a somewhat amusing story about a guy being woken up in the middle of the night by a friend in need, who responds not to the friend’s need, but to his persistence. Jesus’ punch line is, “‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” In case they didn’t get it the first time, he says, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Does this mean we get everything we ask for in prayer? Find everything we’re looking for? Every door we knock on is opened to us? I don’t know about your life, but mine hasn’t always gone that way. That disjoint is enough to put some people off the whole enterprise of prayer.
Prayer is not a laundry list of things we want presented to genie. Prayer is a conversation in the context of a living relationship. We make our requests because God invites us to, the same way a human parent wants her children to ask for the unicorn even if there’s no way to grant that wish – you want the conversation to reflect her heart. And you’re unlikely to give her a viper instead.
So God, the Father in heaven, Jesus suggests, wants us to ask for the desires of our hearts, wants us to seek the truth, wants us to knock on the doors separating us from divine presence. And does Jesus say we will get what we “pray for?” He goes us one better: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’”
Maybe the Holy Spirit doesn’t sound like much if you wanted healing for a loved one, or a better job. Yet the gift of the Spirit encompasses everything. The Holy Spirit brings the life of God into our hearts and minds and bodies. With more of the Spirit alive in us, we are so much better equipped to help bring about healing, to use our gifts at a higher level of functioning, to dwell in the kind of peace that enables us to bring joy and light into all kinds of situations. The Spirit equips us for ministry and gives all kinds of other gifts… love, joy, patience, forebearance. The Spirit prays through us, we are told in Romans – and you can be pretty sure God will answer a prayer that started with God.
How about today we sit down in stillness for a few minutes, take a few deep “in-spiring” breaths, let out some stale thoughts and feelings on the exhales, and then invite the Holy Spirit to come and play. “Spirit of God,” you might say (or “Spirit of Christ”), “I’d like to feel your presence in me. I’d like to feel the peace you bring. I’d like to know what you’re praying through me, what holy encounters you might be equipping me for. I’d like to make more space for you.”
Pay attention to what you feel in your body - do you feel energy anywhere? A tingle? A relaxing? A rush? Sometimes we have a physical response to the Spirit’s visits.
Pay attention to what you feel in your mind and in your spirit – do any images take shape? Do you receive any words or conversation or a desire to do something, pray for someone, go somewhere?
Write it down if you noted anything significant. Share it with someone. If you don’t sense anything, that’s okay – God may be taking some time, or your receptors need some tuning. Keep at it – the time we spend inviting more of God’s life into our lives is never wasted.
7-21-16 - Ask, Seek, Knock
I like it when things come flowing to me without my having to do anything – especially when I don't expect it. And sometimes that happens in life. In the spiritual life, though, it happens more often when we’re also being active, asking, searching, knocking on those doors we wish would open. In fact, Jesus promises that these actions will yield success:
‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
This passage is such an important reminder about the generous nature of God. So often we assume things will come with difficulty, especially spiritual graces; that we need to spend hours in prayer, decades reading difficult texts, climbing the ladder of holiness. No, Jesus says, we only need to genuinely ask, diligently search, knock with the knowledge that God can’t wait to open the door and invite us in. If we, in our limited way, are programmed to want good things for our children, how much more does our heavenly father, who has no restrictions whatsoever on his largesse?
Yet it pays to note what Jesus is saying. He does not say, “How much more will your heavenly father give you what you ask for in prayer.” Sometimes we receive that, sometime we don’t. Jesus says, “How much more will God give his Holy Spirit to those who ask.” Does that feel like getting a sweater at Christmas when we really wanted a race car? "Yeah, yeah, it’s good for me and will last longer..." But when we feel that way, it only betrays our lack of understanding about what gifts come along with the gift of Spirit.
With the Spirit we get the faith to trust in our daily bread. With the Spirit we get the strength and hope that helps us weather spiritual trials. With the Spirit we get the grace to forgive those who have wronged us, and the humility to ask for forgiveness from those whom we have wronged. The Spirit is the answer to the whole Lord’s Prayer!
I hope we haven’t stopped asking to see God’s hand at work in the world about us. I hope we never stop searching for God in all the places and people God can show up in. I hope we never stop knocking at the doors to truth and beauty and goodness and love and peace and joy and generosity. God’s door barely needs to be knocked at – the knock itself pushes it open so we can walk right in.
‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
This passage is such an important reminder about the generous nature of God. So often we assume things will come with difficulty, especially spiritual graces; that we need to spend hours in prayer, decades reading difficult texts, climbing the ladder of holiness. No, Jesus says, we only need to genuinely ask, diligently search, knock with the knowledge that God can’t wait to open the door and invite us in. If we, in our limited way, are programmed to want good things for our children, how much more does our heavenly father, who has no restrictions whatsoever on his largesse?
Yet it pays to note what Jesus is saying. He does not say, “How much more will your heavenly father give you what you ask for in prayer.” Sometimes we receive that, sometime we don’t. Jesus says, “How much more will God give his Holy Spirit to those who ask.” Does that feel like getting a sweater at Christmas when we really wanted a race car? "Yeah, yeah, it’s good for me and will last longer..." But when we feel that way, it only betrays our lack of understanding about what gifts come along with the gift of Spirit.
With the Spirit we get the faith to trust in our daily bread. With the Spirit we get the strength and hope that helps us weather spiritual trials. With the Spirit we get the grace to forgive those who have wronged us, and the humility to ask for forgiveness from those whom we have wronged. The Spirit is the answer to the whole Lord’s Prayer!
I hope we haven’t stopped asking to see God’s hand at work in the world about us. I hope we never stop searching for God in all the places and people God can show up in. I hope we never stop knocking at the doors to truth and beauty and goodness and love and peace and joy and generosity. God’s door barely needs to be knocked at – the knock itself pushes it open so we can walk right in.
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