Deciding and Declaring

There have been times in my life when I thought that I was invisible. I was so detached from God and focused on the natural world that I thought that there was a zone that I could operate in out of God's sight. I found out the hard way that my ignoring God doesn't mean that He is unaware of my thoughts and intentions. I was like the emperor that paraded in his "new clothes." I was convinced that I was dressed, but I was naked.

When we think that we are invisible, we are playing God. He is the invisible one, not us. His word is penetrating. He is everywhere at once. He is omnipotent. He knows everything about us. We are His creations. He knows us and we are accountable to Him. We continue to reenact the Adam and Eve story of the eating of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This amounts to our disobedience of God while He is watching us. We are like the child that intentionally tests its parent’s right in their sight.

In Hebrews 4:1-13 we hear: "Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account."

God's word is truly "living and active." John begins his Gospel (1:1-3 NRSV) with, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." We can ignore the Word of God, but we cannot escape it. It is a matter of how long we can ignore it. It is a game that we cannot win. God had the first word and He will have the last word with us. We are but fools if we think that we are in control. We will have our day of accounting for our lives to Him.

The following "Confession of Sin" from The 1979 Book of Common Prayer helps us recognize our nakedness: "Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen."

Today is where we live. Today takes care of today. It has been said that tomorrow never comes for we always live it as a today. What we do today prepares us for future today's, but we never actually live a tomorrow. Our yesterdays laid the groundwork for our today, but they are gone. Our lives are always a today and today is when we should be living out our salvation.

In Hebrews 3:12-19, St. Paul tells us: "Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end." We make our decision harder than it should be. We want to hold on to too many things that are of the natural world.

Being with God is our best-spent time. That includes being a doorkeeper in His house if necessary. Let's see if we can get this right. Any time that we spend with God in any capacity or condition is our best-spent time. We don't have to be perfect. We don't have to be sinless. We don't have to be rich. We don't have to be poor. We don't have to be worthy. Our one and only decision is whether or not to seek the Lord.