The narrow door
People will come from east and west, from north and south,
And will eat in the kingdom of God. Luke 13:29
Read Luke 13:22—28
I can be pretty sure, if I am on the outside of this door Jesus speaks of, hoping to look in, that, as narrow as the doorway is (it’s as narrow as Christ himself) it opens up into an almost limitless, spacious, inexpressibly rich and beautiful panorama. In fact I am promised that the one who did not withhold his own Son, really because he did not withhold his own Son, will give us all things.[1] I take it from Jesus’ words that my response is to withhold nothing of myself. Anything I hold back from God is what I am going to lose, up to my whole self. And certainly I have found this already: the life I call the Christian life simply doesn’t work if I live it half-heartedly. It is joyless. It is fruitless. It is only satisfying when Christ has all of me.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, when the Father gave you to the world he kept nothing of himself back. When you offered yourself, you offered all of yourself. Your full humanity. Your full divinity. Your full attention, even to me and to my needs. When your Spirit came, it was to fill me. To fill all of me. Let me not withhold any part of myself from any part of your plan for me. For my own joy and my own completeness I yield each part of my life tonight to your pleasure and disposal.
[1] Romans 8:32