Lean into God
We say we hear, but we don’t.
“Let all who have ears to hear me, hear!” Jesus says in Mark 4. We might think — what’s he talking about? I’m right here. Of course, I hear him. I’m not stupid.”
Oh, but we are, and it’s a common occurrence. How often, for example, do we say, “I know. I know,” but go on doing, believing, or saying the very things our professed knowledge conflicts with?
It’s one thing to do this with people. We’re in the middle of an addiction and a friend admonishes us. “I know. I know,” we say, and we want to do better. We want to change. We want good things for ourselves and for others. The friend stands there offering love, offering encouragement, offering companionship, and that’s a lot.
It’s something wholly different with Jesus, and this is why Jesus urges us to lean in and hear him. When Jesus stands there (and he is standing right in front of us right now), there is something more than love, more than encouragement, more than companionship. There is actual grace. Grace awakens a power within us. It stirs the realization that we house the very presence of God within. Once we heed this presence, once we nudge it, once we allow it to begin to breathe, addictions will be damned.
But hear this! Our God works through nature. It won’t be God’s muscle that flexes to beat addiction. It will be our own. Grace empowers us. It works in us, and it works over time. The more we nurture that knowledge, that hearing, that consent to God’s presence within, the more our own muscles increase in strength.
“Let all who have ears to hear me, hear.”
Reflection
Consider your own thoughts, perspectives, and behavior. How different are they when you lean into God than when you push God away?
Prayer
You don’t make things easy, God. I get mad at you for that. I can even throw you away for that. I want to be strong, and I can’t be if I expect you to do things for me. But, oh, God, I do need help. I say I know you and your grace are within me, but do I really know this? Do I give you my hearing? Have mercy on me, God. Help me to lean into you.
