Clean Slate

"God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things

- and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are,

so that no one may boast before him."

Lord, help me to be foolish - to forget the wisdom I think I've gathered. I don't want to understand or comprehend things my mind can grasp. I need to rely only on your understanding, only on your wisdom, only on your truth.

Lord, help me to be weak, to relinquish any strength I've acquired through my efforts. My strength is insufficient, it only prevents me from relying wholly on your strength. Take away my own ability to stand, to fight, to run and leave me only with the strength to love as you love.

Lord, make me lowly and despised; set me apart from the things of this world, from what is valued and praised, from the things people expect and appreciate, from what is proper and predicated. Remove me from the good graces of society and take me into your grace.

Lord, end me. Make me not. Take away my life and replace it with yours. Give me a clean slate, a new foundation to build from, to love from to fall on. Change me.

Power and Control

Simon had power. He was a magician and he had followers. He had people who proclaimed his greatness. Then he heard Philip and he believed. He was baptized. It would be a nice story if Simon's whole self was radically changed. It would be clean and simple if he went under the water as Simon the Sorcerer and came up out of the water as Simon the perfect Christ-follower, devoid of the old desires and hang-ups that were such a part of his life.

That's not the way the story goes. Simon goes under the water Simon the Sorcerer and comes back up as Simon the guy who has a lot of work to do - just like all of us. Simon sees what appears to be the Apostles' power (really it was God's power) and Sorcerer Simon starts to speak up. He wants it. He wants what he used to have. He tries to take God's power and bend it to Sorcerer Simon's way of life. Simon tries to control God by buying His power with money so he can do what he wants with it. God doesn't play that game.

That's why we can't buy grace. That's why we can't earn it. That's why it can only be accepted as a free gift. If we buy it or barter for it or earn it, we control it and we haven't gained anything at all. What we need to do is surrender. That's the point of all of this - to put God back in control. To restore what was twisted.