Les & Diana Morris

Reckless and unrestrained was yesterday’s My Utmost For His Highest theme:

If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you.  Never start to say, “Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?” Be reckless immediately – totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything – by casting your all upon Him.  You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him.  It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him.  You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness – being willing to risk your all.

And so … we have a house full of people doing just that.  We’re here setting up our home, the community discipleship house.  Buying plates, dishes, spices, cooking utensils … a refrigerator to put our food in, a stove to cook on, mattresses, beds to hold those mattresses and all the thousand and one things needed to set up housekeeping from scratch.  Scattered in the middle is a folding table that was being thrown out by Viña Escazu.  It’s been repurposed as our dining room table. Our church here, Viña Anonos has loaned us folding chairs and a microwave.  Rodney and Cindy donate things and help at every turn.  In short, we’re figuring out how to live here.  Our dog Lindsay has zapatos (dog shoes so she can walk on the slippery tile and wood floors). We’re leaving our laundry room light on at night – to discourage the bats, and listening to the pleasant chirping of geckos and lagartijas (little lizards that run on the walls).  And we’re living life together as a family.

Tito, from Los Anonos is our first resident, and 2 of our interns, Shannon and Jessie arrived last night. We’re really excited to see what God has in store for all of us, as we recklessly abandon ourselves to God!

As we do all this, I find myself thinking about a prayer from a monk, named Charles De Foucauld.  John Michael Talbot put the prayer to music. You can listen to it by clicking here  “I Abandon Myself.” and then selecting the song by that title. Following are the words:

I abandon myself to Your will
Do with me whatever You want
I will only be grateful for whatever You do
I’m prepared for anything at all

I commit my life to Your hands
I offer it all now to You
With all the affection of my heart and my soul
Because, O Lord, I love You

I abandon myself to Your will
Do with me whatever You want
Without any conditions and with confidence
Because You are my God

You may notice that I’ve posted about this song in the past.  I think this is because there are always new levels of abandonment to God.  It’s not a one time choice.  Scripture talks to us about “dying to ourselves ~ 1 Cor 15:31,” “taking up our cross and following Him ~ Matt 16:24,” “working out our salvation~ Phil. 2:12.”  It would appear to be so easy to just say “yes!”  But the truth is, we are being transformed into His likeness ~ 2 Cor. 3:18,” and that takes work – it’s a lifetime process!

And so, with gratefulness, with affection, without any conditions and with confidence, because He is our God, we have each, in our own way, chosen to be reckless and unrestrained in our commitment. His grace IS sufficient.