Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The Struggle to become a "Lord-Pleaser"

Scripture Verse that caught my attention today: Ephesians 5:10 “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.”

Observation: How does one know what “pleases” the Lord?

Application: There are probably many possible answers to this question.

Some would say that it pleases the Lord to follow the 10 commandments. Perhaps. But one of the things that I appreciate about what Lutherans bring to the table of faith is the reminder that none of us is able to completely follow, for example, the 10 commandments. Try as we might, our self-centeredness will always get in the way at some point. That’s probably why the Apostle Paul wrote, “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are now justified by his grace as a gift…” (Romans 3:23-24a).

Others might point out verses like Micah 6:8 which says that the Lord requires us to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God.” Great concept, of course, but good luck with that! It’s not as easy as it sounds.

The Bible tells us that it pleased the Lord when Solomon asked for wisdom. But I wonder if it pleased the Lord when Solomon later built the temple on the backs of thousands of people in forced slave labor.

Most would probably agree that the best way to please the Lord might be to simply do what Jesus told us to do. You know, WWJD. Fair enough. Let’s get right to it: “sell all your possessions”, “Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you”, “love your enemies”, “do not worry about your life”, “do not judge”, “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off”, etc. Not so ‘simple’, is it?

I could go on and on, but there’s no need; the point has already been made and it’s a frustrating one to consider—we are not able to ‘please’ the Lord by what we do, at least not consistently over time.

Instead perhaps we please the Lord by simply being who we are—occasionally well-intentioned but usually struggling forms of humanity utterly dependent on a loving God because otherwise we are usually way too obsessed with ourselves and our ‘needs’ to be of any real help to even our closest friends, let alone the enemies that God tells us to “love.”

I must confess that I’m still not completely sure what ‘pleases’ God. (Maybe that’s why the writer of Ephesians wrote “TRY to find out what is pleasing to Lord.”) But I do know that, whether pleased or not, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Prayer: Lord, help me to rely on your unconditional love even as I continue to “try” to find out what pleases you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Scripture Readings today included Ecclesiastes 10, 11, & 12, Psalms 94, and Ephesians 5

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