Make way for the way-maker!

Americans admire ingenuity and self-sufficiency, pulling ones self "up by the boot-straps." Mennonites have some similar traits, believing in sacrificial discipleship and in doing what is right. But today's texts pose a challenge to that way of thinking. It seems in Isaiah 43:16-21, John 12:1-8, Philippians 3:4b-14, and Psalm 126:1-6 we are called to acknowledge that it is God who will do the work, not us. Furthermore, in Philippians 3 Paul points out that our own accomplishments and earned accolades are nothing compared to God. Pastor Phil Kniss points out that in John 12 human attempts at righteousness often get in the way of what God, through Christ, is wanting to do. Thus the challenge for us today is to let go of the urge to control everything in our lives, to let go of the need to make our own way. As we do this, we hold on to God as the "way-maker," and make ourselves available to God, to collaborate with God's work in the world.