Will You Let Him In?
“Into this world, this demented inn in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited.” ~ Thomas Merton
Why? Why does He bother? Why does He make the attempt? Hasn’t He learned by now that He is not wanted? These thoughts, and a host of others along the same line, pop into my head immediately when I see today’s quote from Merton. Think about it. The Lord knows that the world does not want Him. It didn’t want Him then and it doesn’t want Him now. Many times we say, “Well, I want Him”, and then our lived lives say the opposite.
Why does God still care? I truly believe it is because He created us in His image and likeness and nothing that we do can make Him give up on us. Oh, we may very well give up on ourselves; but, God will remain steadfast and loyal to the very end.
He knocks on the door of our hearts asking for admittance. He has left the ability to invite Him in or reject Him totally in our hands. Because of free will, God will never force Himself on us. He knows that He is what is best for us but that will not make Him force us into accepting Him. That decision has to be made on our own.
The world does not have any room for Him or any desire for Him. Because we live in this world, we often adopt its attitudes. We need to make sure that we never deny Jesus entry into our lives. He can restore our fragile lives. He can still the chaos in our souls. He can and will do all of that if we invite Him in.
This season of Advent gives us opportunity upon opportunity to practice inviting Him in. By focusing on the long game, we remember that we are only on this earth for a short time and that the Kingdom is our ultimate goal. If we slam the door on the Lord, we risk closing ourselves off from God for all eternity.
Is our world a demented inn? Yes. Does our world choose values that run opposite to the Lord? Absolutely. Does that mean that we are forced to accept the values of the world and reject the values of Christ? NO! God gave us free will so that we may be allowed to choose. Just as He will not force us to make a decision one way or the other, He does not allow the world to impose a choice on us either.
Jesus is at the door of our hearts. What will be our choice? Maybe we can listen to a little Paul McCartney for a suggestion, “Someone’s knockin’ at the door, Somebody’s ringin’ the bell, do me a favor, open the door, and let ’em in.”
FAITH ACTION: Be not afraid. Invite Jesus to come into your life.