Daily Devotional for November 28

 

November 28                                                   Matthew 19:13-22

                              "...come, follow me. "

Today you invite me, Jesus, to follow you. You invite me to
unclutter my life of all the little strategies I use to insulate myself
from risk and vulnerability. You invite me to learn again what
it means to need God. You invite me to enter with you into
the paschal mystery by following you to Jerusalem where you
will suffer, die, and rise again.

Your answers to my questions leave no doubt that accepting
your invitation will cost me everything. I ask you, Jesus, to lead
me to life, and you tell me to begin by dying to everything
except you. I ask you, "...what do I still lack?" - as if I had
to acquire one more thing to find life - and you tell me, "...
go, sell what you possess... ." I offer to do more "to have
eternal life," and you tell me to be little like a child, "for to
such belongs the reign of heaven."

This is, of course, not the first time you have invited me to
follow you, Jesus. Sometimes I have willingly accepted your
invitation. At other times I went away sorrowful like the rich
young man because I wanted the rewards of spiritual life
without the cost. I was all too willing to observe the externals
of religion without surrendering my heart to you.

Today I choose to follow you, Jesus. I renounce the persons,
powers, prestige, possessions, and philosophies that prevent
me from following you wholeheartedly. I embrace you alone
as the life I long for. Today I will not walk away from you in
sorrow, but like a little child I will run to you in joy. Today
the prayer in my heart and on my lips shall be: "I will follow
you wherever you go." (Luke 9:57)

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From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.C.1