Today I read this

Peter wrote this when he was talking to people in leadership about watching over those entrusted to them.(1 Peter 5v2)

How much of our lives are ruled by ‘musts‘?

How many sighs come from us because we must do – dishes, feeding, working, responding to emails, calling that less-than favourite person, reaching deadlines, listening to our children, ….

Is your diary filled with musts?

Is your heart filled with musts?

Does your life feel like one great ‘must‘?

Perhaps followed closely by it’s horrible twin ‘if only‘??

And isn’t the most important thing of all the state of our heart? 

Because we might do it all – serve, be an example, achieve, attend, be all things to all people – but without love I am a resounding gong. (1 Corn 1v13)

I think perhaps if those ‘good works’ come from a resentful, restless, self-ambitious heart then they are a bit like wood, hay and stubble. 

Maybe today we need an invitation to let go of the grip that must driven resentment has on our hearts. To leave it, and to look to the one who gives us the strength to look at the true depths our heart has sunk to… and who tells us that the purifying work is his.

sometimes the work is hard

sometimes there is no recognition and praise

sometimes we are call to the cross

but…..

we can be willing

willing

vulnerable, empty of cup, worn and broken but willing.

This is where I want to be. I don’t want to be a mighty mountain of musts, noticeable, grand but hard and immovable. I want to be a feather – picked up by the breath of his whisper and moved, because I am willing.

It seams to me there is no ‘because you must‘ there is an invitation to life ‘because you are willing‘

I want no love from someone who must love me. I want to be loved by someone willing to love me.

I want to be embraced by someone willing to see beyond my imperfections – and I want to serve, live and give my life to relationships, work, the journey because I am willing.

How about you?

not because you must,
 but because you are willing,