In an effort to share some encouraging words, here is a short devotional thought taken from Eugene Peterson’s A Year With Jesus – Daily Readings and Meditations
“Lord, If You Choose”
When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord if you choose, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. The Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Matthew 8:1-4
The leper is the needy person in extremis: cut off, lonely, shunned. But no needy condition is so extreme or absolute that we are consigned to despair. There is hope in God. The approach, timid and tentative–“if you will”–unexpectedly finds a bold and positive desire to save: “I will.” What is do bad about being a leper?
I want cleansing, dear Christ, quite as much as that leper. But in your way; what you will. I want my life to be shaped not by my demands, but by the sure but mysterious movement of your grace. Amen