I Abandon Myself to You

Last week we looked at the definition of ‘abandon.’ We discovered that it can mean giving up everything, and also gaining everything. It involves stepping outside the boxes by which we define ourselves! Charles de Foucauld’s “Prayer of Abandonment” says, “Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.”

That’s a pretty sweeping statement and a bit scary. It’s rather like the joke my daughter recently posted on Facebook. A pig and a chicken were walking down the road when the chicken turns to the pig and says "we should go into the restaurant business together. "The pig replies "What should we call the restaurant?" The chicken says "Ham and eggs." The pig states "I don't think I want to go into business with you, you'd be making an investment, I'd be giving up everything."

She noted, “Similarly we want to serve the kingdom of God with our extra eggs, but Jesus requires everything.”

How many people can you think of in the Bible who offered themselves fully to God by ‘giving up everything’ and saying ‘I abandon myself into your hands’? As I noted last week, Moses, David, and Mary are three. However, every other person in the Bible had to respond to God’s call, either by saying ‘do with me what you will,’ or by saying ‘no.’

In the New Testament we hear about many men and women who abandoned themselves to God’s will. The disciples and Mary of Magdala, the Samaritan woman and Paul are all people we look up to because of their willingness to say, ‘do with me what you will.’

Sometimes the Call from God to Abandon ourselves comes in a burning bush (Exodus 3:2-6) or flash of lightening (Acts 9:3-6). Just as often that Call comes in prison (Genesis 39:23) or in a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-18). It can be an invitation from a Galilean rabbi saying ‘Follow me’ (Mark 1:17) or in a vision of glory (Isaiah 6:1-5).

Can we, like Isaiah respond “Here I am, send me,” when God asks “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8) Being willing to Abandon the boxes of our life in order to live into the Freedom of God’s vision is scary, but it is the first step into being transformed more and more into the real person God envisioned.

God tells Jeremiah (and you and me) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” (Jeremiah 1:5) That’s a pretty amazing statement and a promise that can perhaps give us courage to climb out of the confining box to give God everything.

Where in your life is God saying ‘go into business with me’? Are you willing to give up everything or just the ‘extra eggs’? That’s a hard question that I’m going to have to spend some time praying about.

However, I think the first step is hearing God saying ‘come, follow me’ and, like the disciples, abandoning the fishing nets and setting out on the road.