March 11/Second Wednesday of Lent
Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me,
O LORD, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6
You step into the center of the circle — full of doubt, if you are like me — close your eyes, and let yourself fall into the arms of your encircling colleagues. How many of us have played this classic team-building game at a corporate or church retreat? And how many of us have experienced some degree of anxiety around this game? After all, what if they drop us? (Sometimes they nearly do.) It is challenging enough to put ourselves into the hands of those who are right in front of us; how much more challenging, then, to place ourselves trustingly in the hands of the God we cannot see. What if he drops us? (He never does.) Trust, whether it is in unreliable human beings or the ever-faithful God, is hard to come by for those of us who think we know what is best for ourselves. But it is absolutely fundamental to being a believer. To approach God with trust is not so much to act as to allow ourselves to be acted upon. Or as the Quaker spiritual leader Thomas Kelly wrote, “The Eternal is urgently, actively breaking into time, working through those who are willing to be laid hold upon, to surrender self-confidence and self-centered effort.” To commend our spirits into the hands of God is to relinquish our need to control and manage our own affairs, and to surrender to God’s will for us, come what may. We might do well to remember that Jesus uttered this very verse at the moment of his greatest suffering, as he hung on the cross. As people of faith, even faith that is speckled with doubt, we are called to leave behind our anxieties and doubts and to let ourselves fall trustingly into the waiting arms of our creator.
Loving God, Give me the confidence and faith I need to let myself be laid hold upon and lifted up by your strong and trustworthy hands. Amen.
To hear VOCES8 and others sing “In Manus Tuas” by Tomás Luis de Victoria, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT3VYJPVwEs
For today’s readings, click here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031120.cfm
