the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

Once again, this passage might cause us trouble: Does Jesus have no will of his own? Are we really expected to be able to discern all that God is doing? This passage tears to the roots of both our rebellion and our weakness: We don't want to do only what God is doing! Perhaps we are holding on to our own agendas and cannot bear to give up the hopes we have nurtured for so long apart from God. Perhaps we fear that God is too distant or too unconcerned to do anything about the very real needs we see in front of us if God doesn't do anything about it, then it is up to me to take care of the situation!

But is not only our rebellion against God that is revealed by this passage. We also see our weakness: Jesus saw perfectly what no mortal has been able to see, before or sinceGod's actions. The eyes of our faith are weak: we look for God's hand, but see only our whims, our desires, or the goals that the world has told us we must pursue. Our sight is imperfect at best, partly because we are not practiced in discerning God's hand, partly because we do not always want to see God's hand, and partly because the world throws us imitations that confuse us.

So when we read Jesus' words here, we are cut to the quick. Here is Jesus revealing to us how humanity is meant to live, in perfect communion with God, and his perfection reveals to us our rebellious nature and the weakness of our vision. We see Jesus modeling what we should be doing, and we realize how impossible it is for us to reach this on our own. What should be an encouragement becomes, in a way, a judgment against us.

But again, this is only the one picture. As we grow closer to God, as we learn more and more about God's love and God's purposes in the world, we begin to see how wonderful it is that Jesus is so perfectly submissive. We realize how imperfect even our noblest and purest desires are compared to what God desires. We realize how weak our love for others is, and how ready God is to assist us in our desires to do good in this world. As we grow closer to Christ, we begin to see this statement as no longer a judgment but as an invitation to grow in love and submission to the God who desires that we bring life and hope and peace and joy to a world that desperate needs them.

So then as we desire to keep God at the center of our lives, we must secondly learn how to do only what we see God doing. This involves a lot of growth on our part, for which we must ask God to bring about in our lives. It means we must learn top discern what God is doing and to ignore all the things God is not doing, no matter how worthy they seem to be. Then we must learn to set aside our own agendas, for the sake of completing for which God as called us. It is here that we fulfill the counsel of Caussade that we abandon ourselves completely to God's will at every moment. And it is also here that we learn how to live the advice of the Theologia, keeping one eye on God and one eye on the world.

Eventually, we will stop pointing to ourselves and start pointing to Jesus. But only when we do this will be able to bring forth the fruits of God's love in the world. Only then will be able to love others as God loves them. Only then will we be able to put aside all the division, accusation, deception, and destruction and bring forth life, joy, peace, hope, mercy and grace. When we learn to do only that which we see God doing, we will no longer have to worry about doing the wrong thing or about being unable to accomplish our goals, for in Christ we can do all things, and whatever we do in Christ is beyond reproach.

How do we then keep God in the center of our lives? These two passages suggest two crucial steps: first, that we recognize God's constant presence in our lives. Once we see this, we begin to look for God in our daily events and routines: we know he is there, so we trust in some way that he is revealing himself to us. We trust as well that he knows what we are going through and that he will enable us to do whatever is right in his sight. There is no problem too big and no concern to small for God. As soon as we see this, the world becomes a much less frightening place, and the alphabet which God uses becomes more clear to us.

The second step is this, that we do nothing which we do not see God doing first. As we learn to do this (and it will take our entire lifetime even to get past the beginner stage), we will grow more like Christ, who laid aside all authority he had in himself in order to fulfill the will of God who sent him, namely, that he reconcile those who believe in him to God, brining life and hope and peace to the world. As we become more flexible in allowing God to use us, we will see our own place in the world betterhow we are in truth wonderfully and fearfully made, and how great God's love is for us, that he would choose to use creatures so fragile to build a people so invincible. Simultaneously, we will learn how dependent we are on God and how lavishly God loves us.

Isn't that wonderful news?

In Christ,
Steve

P.S.: I have given these two verses because they speak strongly to me. They are the verses I call to mind when I need to refocus myself on God. But I do strongly recommend the great devotional writers of the history of the church. The more we read from the past, with all its variety and complexity, the better perspective we will have on our present situation. Plus, these are the written records of people who have encountered the risen Christ in the depths of their hearts, and of the changes that have been worked in them by the grace of God. We could do far worse than to study their writings and learn from them what God has been doing. For an easy place to start, I highly recommend Richard Foster's anthology Devotional Classics, which presents excerpts from 52 great Christian writers. Here you can easily sample and taste various writers in order to decide whom you want to invest in. It's an excellent way to connect with the entire Christian tradition!

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