Last night I was on the couch. I had the television on flipping back and forth between baseball and football, paying little attention to either. I had just made a pot of decaf coffee and had some cheese sticks baking in the oven. I was thinking about my life of comfort. And I’m not making this up – a short time later I heard Diane on the phone talking to a friend whose church is getting ready to cushion their pews.
At the same time, missionary friends shared a post about the difficulty of being a sojourner. You can read that here. By a sojourner, I mean a person in a place that’s not really their home. Yet when they are a missionary for a while, “back home” isn’t even their home anymore.
The most difficult part of being a Christian in America for me is living with my comfort. (Insert “church people” joke here). I don’t know if you have ever thought about this yourself or if you just think I’m crazy. And it’s not that I yearn for a difficult life.
Sometimes I just wonder why God has given me this life of comfort.
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I’m reminded of the following prayer, known as the Wesley Covenant Prayer:
- I am no longer my own, but thine.
- Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
- Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
- Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
- exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
- Let me be full, let me be empty.
- Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
- I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
- And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
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- thou art mine, and I am thine.
- So be it.
- And the covenant which I have made on earth,
- let it be ratified in heaven.
- Amen.
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