Did we choose our place of birth? What would our lives be like if we'd been born to different parents in a different culture in a different country?
We could have just as easily been born into a poor Maquiritare tribal family as we could have been born into a comfortable American family.
We could be eking out of living in the jungle. We could be walking ten minutes to the river to scrub our clothes on a rock at the river’s edge. We could be carrying all our water in a bucket on our head from the river to our palm roofed hut and sweeping our dusty dirt floors.
We could be working long hours in the hot sun to grow all our food. We could be dependent on whether our husband is a good hunter or not for meat.
We could be living in fear that our child will die from malaria or hepatitis or a simple cut that became infected just because medicine is unavailable.
We could be consumed with simply living our lives to exist. with none of the conveniences we take for granted. No ice for our soda. No refrigeration at all. No telephones, no internet, no blogging, no facebook.
We did not choose our place of birth and yet we so often take our relative luxurious life for granted. Sometimes we’re even downright ungrateful and discontented.
If we could have chosen where we were to be born, would we have chosen to be born into poverty? Probably not.
What if we knew that by living an impoverished life we could impact others lives? Would we have chosen to have been born to live an impoverished life? Probably not.
Yet that is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus could have stayed in heaven and lived in heavenly glory. Instead He chose to leave heaven.
He chose to come even though he knew that after spending three years teaching His disciples and others, that in the end one of His disciples would sell Him out—and the world at large would reject Him.
He chose to live this life even knowing they would mock Him, beat Him and ultimately hang Him on a cross to suffer an unimaginably painful death.
He chose to be born into this impoverished life in order that He might give up HIS life to make a way possible for us to be reconciled with His Heavenly Father, to make His Heavenly Father our Heavenly Father.
Jesus was man, but He was God. As God He was omniscient. He knew all this was going to happen. He knew, but He still came.
He knew, but He still submitted to the will of His Heavenly Father.
Jesus was God, but He was man. He agonized in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before being arrested, praying that "if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done!"
"If it be possible, please don't make me suffer this way! If it be possible, please don't make me have to be rejected and crucified! If it is possible... ."
"Nevertheless, not MY WILL but THINE be done!"
Total acceptance and total submission to the will of His Father even knowing what it would cost Him.
As we’ve just celebrated Easter and have been dwelling on all Christ did for us, are we ready to say as Jesus said, “Not my will, but Thine be done!”
Are we ready to submit OUR will to GOD’S will? Are we ready to die to self that Christ may live in and through us? Are we ready for total acceptance of whatever God's will for our lives is? Are we ready for total acceptance and total submission?
We may not have been able to choose where we are born, but we can choose whom we will serve.
We could have just as easily been born into a poor Maquiritare tribal family as we could have been born into a comfortable American family.
We could be eking out of living in the jungle. We could be walking ten minutes to the river to scrub our clothes on a rock at the river’s edge. We could be carrying all our water in a bucket on our head from the river to our palm roofed hut and sweeping our dusty dirt floors.
We could be working long hours in the hot sun to grow all our food. We could be dependent on whether our husband is a good hunter or not for meat.
We could be living in fear that our child will die from malaria or hepatitis or a simple cut that became infected just because medicine is unavailable.
We could be consumed with simply living our lives to exist. with none of the conveniences we take for granted. No ice for our soda. No refrigeration at all. No telephones, no internet, no blogging, no facebook.
We did not choose our place of birth and yet we so often take our relative luxurious life for granted. Sometimes we’re even downright ungrateful and discontented.
If we could have chosen where we were to be born, would we have chosen to be born into poverty? Probably not.
What if we knew that by living an impoverished life we could impact others lives? Would we have chosen to have been born to live an impoverished life? Probably not.
Yet that is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus could have stayed in heaven and lived in heavenly glory. Instead He chose to leave heaven.
He chose to come even though he knew that after spending three years teaching His disciples and others, that in the end one of His disciples would sell Him out—and the world at large would reject Him.
He chose to live this life even knowing they would mock Him, beat Him and ultimately hang Him on a cross to suffer an unimaginably painful death.
He chose to be born into this impoverished life in order that He might give up HIS life to make a way possible for us to be reconciled with His Heavenly Father, to make His Heavenly Father our Heavenly Father.
Jesus was man, but He was God. As God He was omniscient. He knew all this was going to happen. He knew, but He still came.
He knew, but He still submitted to the will of His Heavenly Father.
Jesus was God, but He was man. He agonized in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before being arrested, praying that "if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done!"
"If it be possible, please don't make me suffer this way! If it be possible, please don't make me have to be rejected and crucified! If it is possible... ."
"Nevertheless, not MY WILL but THINE be done!"
Total acceptance and total submission to the will of His Father even knowing what it would cost Him.
As we’ve just celebrated Easter and have been dwelling on all Christ did for us, are we ready to say as Jesus said, “Not my will, but Thine be done!”
Are we ready to submit OUR will to GOD’S will? Are we ready to die to self that Christ may live in and through us? Are we ready for total acceptance of whatever God's will for our lives is? Are we ready for total acceptance and total submission?
We may not have been able to choose where we are born, but we can choose whom we will serve.
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