Our Stories
Learning To Live The Invitation
By Char Forslund | posted 09/10/2009
"Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.' So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly." (Luke 19:1-6, NIV)
There is a strong temptation in me to stay up in the sycamore tree and not come down. Like Zacchaeus, I am content to watch from my perch. Even when Jesus reaches His hand up for me, I oftentimes hesitate or resist. I freely admit that once He helps me climb down out of my current "tree"...whatever it happens to be today...the view through His eyes is clearer and cleaner than anything from my human vantage point. What God is surely planning for me rests in my clasping His hand and giving Him my willingness and availability. If I waver, He lovingly coaches me. "Come on down! Let me make you adequate, capable, and confident! I want to have what you are serving for supper tonight...at your place."
Uh oh! Did I wipe up the kitchen and the counters? Oh shoot! What about the bathroom! and, and, and! Then it hits me, HARD! God is not waiting for me to blow dry my hair, add a bit of make-up, put on presentable clothes and then go out into His created world after I have passed the mirror test. What He seeks and rejoices in is the sleepy surrender of my will. "Hi God, it’s me, Charlotte. I know You love me and I love You too. Do what You will with me today as I give myself to You."
It is my daily desire to not get trapped into the mirror image life that the world advertises every day. I choose rather to seek to be a window through which His will and His way can be seen and transforms my life into an invitation. I want to learn how to live His invitation.
I have proved so many times to be wayward, unpredictable, unwilling, unbending, and sinful. Yet He comes every day to greet me and to invite me into His glorious plan for our day. I’ve been thinking about that chorus that I sang as a youngster:
This is the day, this is the day
That the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
And every morning He sings to me:
Charlotte, this is your day,
This is a day I made for you!
Come, enter into it.
Be joyful and glad!
I want to continue to learn how to live His invitation. Part of what that means for me is that I choose to live an incarnational life--
Christ in me-
The miracle of the
Incarnate God!
Alive in me-
Incomprehensible
But true!
I think I’m learning a bit-- a very little bit. I’m learning by asking:
- Have I surrendered TODAY, greeting Him and the day with expectancy?
- Am I looking in the mirror way too often, concerned with what the world sees in me?
- Do I have the God given confidence to trust Him and use my gifts for Kingdom work?
- Do I truly believe that the people I encounter today will be able to see Him through the window of my life?
- Do I accept and believe the reality that the great I AM desires to call me out, today, into his world because of His love for every person out there?
- Am I willing and available?
- Do I believe in and serve a present tense God?
It boils down to just today. I can climb my current "tree" and sit there and watch, and observe, and nod... Or I can hold out my human hand to Him and say, "God, bless me with knowledge that You love me. Pursue me! Love me! Strip me of my falsehoods! Love me! Give me gifts to give out through the window of my life lived in You. I want to learn to live Your invitation, so that solely because of Your incarnation, any one will be able to touch You and accept their own invitation."
It’s time to climb out of the "tree" once again today and welcome a new adventure with joy. Want to join me?
Love and Joy,
Char
Char can be reached via email here.
