Are You Ready to Be Offered?

I thought I was finished with this question after yesterday, but apparently not.

"Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be" -- Oswald.

I do not want to be like the unfaithful servant who said "yes" when he didn't really mean it. If I say "yes," I want to mean it, and I don't know that I can or do. On the other hand, I'm not sure I can say "no" either, so I am perplexed.

Frank, my husband, Izzy, my youngest daughter, and I are at a weekend retreat. Frank is doing the cooking, and last night I helped serve; but today, I have been free to attend the sessions, to hike with Izzy, and to rest. This morning, the speaker focused on a passage in John that he said perfectly illustrated "by faith alone -- in Christ alone -- through grace alone." God, he said, delights in us.

This afternoon, Izzy and I read a couple chapters of The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. One of the chapters was the one where the dwarfs kept insisting, "The dwarfs are for the dwarfs!" They certainly were not going to be offered up or taken in, and as a consequence, they could not enjoy the beauty around them. Their eyes could not see and their ears could not hear the wonders that awaited them.

Again, I am reminded of Jim Elliot's words: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

"God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be."