You Can't Always Get What You Want ...

I am not proposing that the whole world take a look at the cards in their hand and “fold.” To surrender is not to fold. It is to play the hand you’ve been dealt - to take it as far as you can, in faith and obedience (there’s a word you never hear anymore…)

Sometimes you have to play aggressively and even radically. No child born should have to “surrender” to racist treatment because they were dealt a skin shade others may not appreciate. No gay man or woman should have to submit to violence or public scorn and disrespect because they were dealt homosexuality. But perhaps part of our whole human experience is meant to contain a moment wherein we say, “okay, God, you dealt me this hand. I don’t particularly appreciate it - it’s not the hand I would have chosen. Therefore, I’ll let you play it, I’ll follow your lead and trust that it will not come up a stinker.

Tough to do…it goes against our every instinct. And yet, this is what Christ lived out for us. His trial, torture and death were NOT what his followers had in mind. It did not meet their expectations. It thwarted all their plans and turned their desires into nothingness. And they had no choice, they had to just deal with it, accept it, live through it. And on the third day, Christ rose, and the entire world was made new, due to that surrender - due to playing a hand no one really wanted to see dealt, faithfully, and to completion.

If I quoted all I wanted to from this truth-filled post that boldly speaks what so many do not want to hear, then I'd put the entire thing here. Go see what The Anchoress reveals in The Dangerous Prayer of Blessing.

ADDITION: Speaking of Ignoring the Truth
Check out this revised liturgical form being discussed by Episcopalians ... for God, Our Mother. I guess this is an example of what happens when we keep chipping away at the truth of things to satisfy ourselves. Ick.