Thursday - Communion

It's already Thursday and I'm wondering where the first half of the week went. I have been so busy this week it seems that time is just flying by in a whirlwind of activity. Today is Communion day in my holy week so I have spent the last few days getting ready. That means taking out time to actually pause and look at your life and your relationship with God. Tonight I will attend a service where the church will observe the Lord's Supper. It's a ceremony that reminds one of what Jesus went through when He was preparing to die and what His purpose was in doing it. It is a very serious service and the realization that you are remembering and in a way reenacting what Jesus did just before He died is very sobering. I was spending some time last night praying and getting myself ready for this service because the Bible instructs that it not be taken lightly and that we are to "examine ourselves" and see if there is anything in our lives that is displeasing to the Lord and then take care of it. It is analogous to deep cleaning your house right before you are going to have company. You make sure everything is really clean and try not to leave anything left undone. The same is true in preparation for Communion. As I was "cleaning house" I was noticing the areas of my life that are in desperate need of repair. Sometimes it's hard to face the things about you that are not pleasant or admit the areas where you are going off track. At least for myself, I want to say that really I am not all that bad, that the good I do far out weighs the bad, the bad that I do isn't really that bad, and ultimately there are things I enjoy that I don't want to give up. Then the question comes - how much of Jesus do I want in my life? Do I want Him only in certain areas, only to love me and not to correct me, only when it is convenient, only when the hard times come and He can bail me out? It reminds me of a story I once read titled "My Heart, Christ's Home". This man had become a Christian and Christ had moved into his house (heart). The man was so excited that he actually had Jesus living with him and he started showing Him around the house and getting Jesus settled in His "guest room". As the days and weeks went by the man started to notice that Jesus didn't just stay in His designated area of the house but started to move about and, to the man's shock, Jesus started cleaning the house. Room by room Jesus made His way around the house repairing what was broken and getting rid of the filth and dirt that were everywhere. At first the man was grateful for all the work Jesus was doing but soon he began to become a little irritated as Jesus moved into areas that the man didn't necessarily want Him to. As Jesus began to try and clean up more and more of the man's house there were many struggles. Jesus never forced Himself or His desire on the man, He never was forceful or demanding in His requests to clean up the man's house. He just did what the man would let Him do and He never gave up trying to clean the entire house, including a closet that the man was most determined to keep sealed. That closet became the central struggle between the man and Jesus. The man didn't want Jesus to open the closet and clean it for shame of what He might find, because there were things in it he didn't want to get rid of, because the thought of actually dealing with what was in the closet was too much for him. Still, Jesus kept asking if He could open the closet and clean it. Finally, he asked the man, "When you asked me to live in your house you asked me to clean everything and to get rid of the things that need to be gotten rid of. If this closet is a part of your house then I need to clean it as well." Slowly, hesitantly, even painfully, the man allowed Jesus to open the closet and start to clean it out. Everyone has things in their life that they don't want to face or deal with. As a Christian I want Jesus to be manifested in every part of my life and to work so that He fills every part of my life. As I prepare for communion and remembering what Jesus did for me on the cross I must examine my life and allow Jesus access to the "closets" in my life so that I can stand before Him truly clean and have an unhindered relationship with Him. At times, allowing Jesus to work in your life can be uncomfortable and even painful, but the outcome is so much better than anything you had before. Like a wound that is cleaned and then heals, my life is so much better when I acknowledge where I am wrong and allow Jesus to remove the things in my life that need to go. Then I can truly have communion with God and the remembrance of what Jesus did for me is so much sweeter.

*About Me* Good childhood memories: running through the sprinkler in the summers - slipping and sliding on grass and mud and if you had any spare tarps laying around, those made for great slides. Walking through the grass in your bare feet or walking in the dirt just after a rain and feeling the mud squish between your toes. Standing outside in a monsoon rain just before the lightning got so bad you had to go in. Playing outside from early in the morning until the sun set and then watching the moon come out and counting all the stars you could see in the great big Arizona sky. Playing hide-and-seek or kick-the-can with a group of twenty to thirty kids. Having water balloon fights and squirt gun fights. Having pine cone wars in the mountains and using fallen trees and huge boulders as your forts. Building tree houses and then pretty much living in them for the bulk of the summer.