consent to be made..

George MacDonald writes:
“The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan, but to fall in with the forces at work – to do every moment’s duty aright – that being the part in the process allotted to us; and let come – not what will, for there is no such thing – but what the eternal Thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first. If men would but believe that they are in process of creation, and consent to be made – let the maker handle them as the potter his clay, yielding themselves in respondent motion and submissive hopeful action with the turning of his wheel, they would ere long find themselves able to welcome every pressure of that hand upon them, even when it was felt in pain, and sometimes not only to believe but to recognize the divine end in view, the bringing of a son into glory; whereas, behaving like children who struggle and scream while their mother washes and dresses them, they find they have to be washed and dressed, notwithstanding, and with the more discomfort: they may even have to find themselves set half naked and but half dried in a corner, to come to their right minds, and ask to be finished.”

read it again and I will too.

Lord, us help to welcome every pressure of Your hand.

Unclosing Our Hands

Another fine thing in The Pr. & the Goblin is where Curdie, in a dream, keeps on dreaming that he has waked up and then finding that he is still in bed. This means the same as the passage [in Macdonald’s Lilith] where Adam says to Lilith “Unless you unclose your hand you will never die & therefore never wake. You may think you have died and even that you have risen again: but both will be a dream.”
This has a terrible meaning, specially for imaginative people. We read of spiritual efforts, and our imagination makes us believe that, because we enjoy the idea of doing them, we have done them. I am appalled to see how much of the change wh. I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary. The real work seems still to be done. It is so fatally easy to confuse an aesthetic appreciation of the spiritual life with the life itself — to dream that you have waked, washed, and dressed, & then to find yourself still in bed. — Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis

What are the things that I have tighty clasped in my hands? Are there ideas and expectaions that I cherish outside of His Love and will for me? How can I learn to give Him all the faith He's given to me and open up my hands?
Maybe that's why I love to pray with my hands open and palms up. Once I tried a Tai Chi class but I only lasted about 5 minutes because I kept placing my palms up and this didn't fly with the instructor. She would come over and sweetly turn my palms over. I think we both realized this just wasn't for me.

I think C. S. Lewis is so cute here, 'the real work seems still to be done...' such a funny way to put it because the 'real' work is letting go, trusting, giving over the outcome to Him.

Curdie is dreaming that he will get up and save the princess. When he does really wake up, he saves many people but not the princess, she's been safe and sound all along. Sometimes all of our 'spiritual efforts' as Lewis put it, have a completely different purpose than we thought. Actually I think of our spiritual efforts are pretty useless. It's that 'unclosing of our hands' that God is waiting for, that complete willingness to trust in Him even when the thread of His leading is taking us on a difficult unexpected path.

Eph. 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I love the paradox here... we are not saved through our works but we are God's workmanship created to do good works and all it takes to be His little good work doer is really unclose our hands to ourselves and our death grip on our wants and desires and trust in His grace, the free undeserved gift of Love and Life He continually offers.

That's worth waking up for :)