A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: 3/18

Good morning, good God!

I'm praying on your word, Lord:

   I will place my law within them,
      and write it upon their hearts;
   I will be their God,
      and they shall be my people...
       - Jeremiah 31

I know it's there, Lord:
   I know your law's within me,
      you've autographed my heart;
   you've engraved your law, your word of love,
inside my soul and on my mind...

With your name inscribed you claim me as your own:
   your child, your image, your work of art divine...

I'm branded with your word, your love
   and so your word of love becomes:
      the law by which I'm called to live;
      the decree by which I make decisions;
the statute guiding all my choices;
the rule by which I measure what is good
         and what is not...

And yet...
   and yet, Lord, I often fail to live by just that word,
that love, that law so intimately written by your hand,
so personally inscribed for me to read and learn,
     to know and follow...

I will place my law within them,
   and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God,
   and they shall be my people...

It takes centuries for tides to wear down boulders

but only months, or weeks or only days

        before my pride begins
   to wear against the letter, then the spirit of your law
   so beautifully, carefully scriven

in the marrow of my being...

My pride, fears and sins,
   my self-pity and my selfishness
began to smooth away the words, the law I once knew well
   and recognized as guidance from your hand,
written close to home where I might always find it...

My own desires draw my eyes from reading carefully
   what you'd written to instruct me,
to teach me where your way leads,
   to show me how to walk in faith with you
   and walk in peace with those whose paths I share...

And so come times when I forget
what you've so plainly written on my heart,
when my conscience calls but I ignore its voice
and close my mind and heart

to what I know is true, is just, is fair

and is what you desire of me...

So today I offer you my heart, Lord:

refresh your word, your love, your law

inscribed upon my heart;
renew your signature, your name, your claim

upon my soul;
inscribe again your wisdom,

etched in my mind's thoughts

to guide how I decide and choose, measure and discern

what’s good and true and holy,

and all that comes from you…

I will place my law within them,
and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people...

Amen.