Day 4: First Saturday
Mark 8:31-38 (especially 8:35-38)
Jesus, we are often full of anxiety about the preservation of our lives, even though we frequently live in foolish, dangerous ways that require energetic or extended acts of compensation:
- eating things that provide no nourishment;*
- spending much time in idle, mind-numbing pursuits;
- anxiously striving to amass more wealth, gain a reputation, or control the world we inhabit;
even though these things provide no enduring satisfaction.*
Many of us invest significantly in the protection of our transient and corruptible assets (which we mistake for the core of our lives), by purchasing various forms of security. But we do too little to secure our hearts and minds in steadfast relationship to You. We take few risks involved in following You closely, in investing and losing ourselves in the continuation of your mission.+
We are too fearful and too often embarrassed about our faith in You. And our world is deceitfully enticing, promising more than it can deliver, distracting us from the truth that our identity, our best hope, and all enduring satisfaction and joy are in close, bold, strenuous fidelity to You.^
Enable us to see clearly and choose wisely. Energize us for courageous faith. Help us to give ourselves away for You, as You have done for us. Amen.
* See Isaiah 55:2
+ See Isaiah 58:10
^ See Matthew 4:1-11 and parallels
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