Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 15.1-12,17-18; Philippians 3.17-4.1; Luke 13.31-35

"And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness". Abram, in future to be known as Abraham, the founding Father of the great people of God, without an heir, looks up in the sky and God says to him you will have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. If there was anyone with any cause to doubt, it was Abram at that point. God showed him something that would have seemed to him impossible, but nevertheless, he believed - and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Last week as we began our journey through Lent and as we began our look at repentance we thought a lot about doubt. We thought about how the devil tried to sow seeds of doubt in Jesus mind and heart during those long days and nights in the wilderness. And we thought about how the devil does the same with us. But we saw in the reading too how Jesus dealt with those temptations or trials. So today our readings help us look at belief, as we read of Abram, St. Paul and Jesus himself.

Abraham was faithful to God, throughout his life. God called Abraham to set out to a land far away which God promised to make his home. He answered the call. God asked him to sacrifice his own son and in the torment and horror of answering that call he was saved from actually doing that. And these in addition to what we've read from Genesis this morning show the depth of Abraham's faith in God, the depth of his belief. Abraham shows us that unswerving commitment to God and God's will. And that commitment is sometimes tested to breaking point, to a point where you could expect anybody to give up or give in. But Abraham models for us what faith really is about, in part, going on when all seems lost or diametrically opposed to all common sense and wisdom.

When we come to read what St. Paul says this morning, he's telling the Philippians to "stand firm in the Lord". Around them the Philippians can see people living contrary to the law and will of God. He says to the Philippians that "Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things". He's telling the Philippians not to be distracted by those they see around them, not to let what others outside the Church think of them put them off their journey with God. He says "our citizenship is in heaven....(the Lord Jesus Christ) will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory". And so he tells them to "stand firm". It can be so easy to be put off our Christian commitment by the life and lifestyle of those outside the Church, to be drawn into thinking that it has pleasures and joys and happiness not open to those who follow Christ. But it's actually an illusion, because the real joy to be had is joy in the Lord because it's from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us that we bear the fruits of love, joy and peace. The joy of the Holy Spirit is real joy, the joy of the world is an illusory joy because it is transient, unlike the joy of the Holy Spirit which is permanent and abiding.

Jesus comes to Jerusalem and mourns and weeps over it. The people are such a disappointment to him, because they don't believe; and the place which Jews believe is God's dwelling place will become the place where Jesus' life will be taken from Him. Those people are probably then the epitome of unbelief. And even though they are the people of God, they still don't see God's Son when He's amongst them. They will laud Him when He comes, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" they'll sing; and then so soon kill Him. So this we read in Luke's gospel this morning is the opposite of what we read in Genesis and of St. Paul. But it can be so like ourselves too - wavering - believing one minute, unbelieving the next.

If we are truly to repent; if we are truly to turn heart and mind to God and let the Holy Spirit work in us. If we are truly to do God's will and put His will in place of our own and know the real delights of His presence within and around us, then we must believe, we must cast our all upon God and then not only that but we must stand firm, we must not give up in that belief. What you have to do is really and actually bet your whole life upon God, no less will do. You have to believe His word and live His commandments. Only then will God begin to make sense, only then will we know His love; only then will we not just know about Him but we will know Him. Nothing less than total commitment of heart, mind, body, soul and spirit will do. Because we remember that Jesus said, "not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father".

These readings this morning remind us that there are no half way houses with belief. It's all or nothing.

Tuesdays in Lent - First Week

James 1.16-25; Matthew 7.21-end

For our Lent mediations this year we are following what St. John Chrysostom calls the 'Five Paths to Repentance', that is, Condemnation of our own sins; Forgiving our enemies; Prayer; Almsgiving; Humility. We are doing this as we use Lent this year to think about our own personal spiritual life, our need for repentance or turning the heart to God. I was saying on Ash Wednesday and on Sunday that repentance is a life long process. As we turn away from sin and turn our heart to God and live our life in response to and in co-operation with God, the devil at every turn tries to stop us with one subtle or not so subtle tactic. We need to be aware of this, the whole time. That doesn't mean that we have to feel that we are being taunted all the time, or live in fear that we might go wrong or off the rails, or that the devil is waiting around every corner and so live with anxiety or in fear. It just calls for awareness that there are those forces within and without that will take us away from God. But then in that state of awareness and especially at this time of Lent, we can do the real work of addressing our sins, addressing all those states of mind and heart and behaviour that we call sin. And then in faith turn again to God.

In these Lent weekday meditations I will be using Bible readings mainly from those suggested by the great Russian saint, St. Theophan the Recluse, in his work 'Turning the Heart to God', readings which help us in a serious examination of our life, to ask ourselves how well we measure up to what God requires of us. And we have to remind ourselves right away that as we turn to God, His Spirit will help us. The grace of God is there, coming to our aid all through this process. God doesn't leave us to do all of this work ourselves. We work in a sort of partnership where our will conforms to God's will, with His help. So, where do we start?

St. John Chrysostom gives us the starting point, which is, 'Condemnation of our own sins'. Jesus and St. James remind us very graphically that we have to take action in the Christian life if what they tell is us going to make a difference to us and to the world. We hear from Jesus and the Apostles how we, each individual Christian, should think and speak and behave. But we can't just leave it at hearing. We must act. Only taking action makes any difference at all. And it has to be the right action. Not only do we build, but we build on rock. Hearing Jesus' words and acting on them is like building on rock. And the first of our right actions according to St. John is to condemn our own sins. To do that we need to face them, be aware of them, we need to identify them and own up to them.

St. James says that somebody who doesn't act on what they hear, who simply listens to the message but doesn't act on it is like someone who sees their own reflection in a mirror and then on moving away from the mirror forgets what they saw. Sometimes we look in the mirror and we like what we see and we remember that. Sometimes we look in a mirror and we'd rather forget, when we see another wrinkle, another grey hair, bags under the eyes or a double chin! Looking at our sin is like holding up a mirror to our heart. We may do that often but do we remember what we see? Do we dare remember? I guess that most often we don't like what we see so we forget. The mind is peculiarly adept at pushing back down the memory of those sins that we'd rather not remember. And then those memories, hidden down below are like sharks gliding backwards and forwards silently, in the dark depths, just biding their time. And at an opportune time they will surface to torment us.

Jesus and St. James and St. John say between them that we should look at those sins and condemn them. Accept that we were wrong inasmuch as what we did or said or thought was not within the will of God but came out of our own self-centredness and ego, out of our own selfish will, and we should condemn them. We should admit those deeds and words and thoughts were wrong, to ourself and to God and condemn them.

Now notice that St. John says we condemn the sin, he doesn't say condemn ourself. And why not? Because God forgives us absolutely. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus condemn people for their sins. He forgives and says don't do it again. And that's the next step. That's the next action. And for that we need a new dedication, a new zeal to live according to the will of God and not to fall into sin again. We are saying to God 'Thy will be done' in me. But because we are human we will fall into sin again. This process is like a tug of war with God's will at one end of the rope, the devil at the other and us right in the middle. And we can feel pulled to and fro until it hurts. But the good news is that once we gain momentum in God's direction, when we renew our dedication to God, renew our zeal to live in His way, in comes His Grace to help us. This is repentance. This is turning the heart to God. And the first step is to condemn our own sin, hate our sin, run from it as fast as we can. Then we can get the wind of God's Grace at our back and receive, at the same time, his forgiveness. And a most wonderful thing about God is that when we fall again and again and again, we can get up and start over again and again and again, and God forgives us seventy times seven times, that is, as much forgiveness as it takes to win us over. Because we have a God that loves us so much He died for us.

So, St. John calls us today to look into our hearts, remember what we see, condemn the sin, receive God's forgiveness and then start out anew with a new determination that God's will will be done in us.

First Sunday of Lent

Romans 10.8b-13; Luke 4.1-13

This Lent we are looking at our own personal relationship with God, our own individual spiritual journey; what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Christ. Because I believe that the season of Lent is a gift to us by the Church to take some extra time to think about our own standing with God and not only to believe in Him but to get to know Him. The two are different. And our readings today, this first Sunday in Lent give us the opportunity to begin that work; because getting to know God demands work, the work without which, 'faith is dead' as St. Paul said.

And that's highlighted by what St. Paul says in that little bit of his letter to the Romans that we've read this morning - 'The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved'. You could say that 'confess with your lips' is the work and 'believe in your heart' is faith. So faith and works are necessary for that getting to know God. To put it in simple terms, if you want to find out about a place, really get to know it, it's no use just believing that the place exists because you've seen it on a map or somebody's told you about it, you've got to go to the trouble of travelling there. Faith and works - and the same is true of the Christian life. You've got to believe and then you've got to actually go to the trouble of living it, and with ALL the demands it makes, not just picking and choosing which bits you like the look of and which are usually easy. And you've got to make it a life time's commitment. I'm afraid that being a Christian isn't like learning 'Greek in a week' or 'seeing Wales in a weekend'. Being a Christian is a life time's work because it's God we are getting to know. So we've got before us this commitment to faith, to believing and to doing the work that faith demands. And I just want to linger a bit longer over that, and tease out what it might mean. It's important we take our time at this early stage because we are preparing the ground for what might come later as we make our way through Lent.

The gospel reading for this Sunday, which at one time was the first day of Lent before Ash Wednesday was put in place by the Church, is always the one about Jesus in the wilderness. And it's Jesus' time in the wilderness that we use as our model for Lent. This particular episode in Jesus' life happens immediately after He is baptised. And that's the first important thing we note as we think about faith and works. Our baptism is our initiation into the Church and into the Christian life. It's the point at which we receive for ourselves, the grace of the Holy Spirit. We receive that Spirit in faith; and then comes the work. And the Spirit of God is there with us in that work. Notice, here in St. Luke's gospel it says the Spirit, the Spirit of God, led Jesus into the wilderness. In St. Mark it says that the Spirit 'drove' Jesus into the wilderness. This is God's testing time for Jesus, after He's taken that step of faith and been baptised. And so if our Christian life is the same as that of Jesus, which it's bound to be if we are committed to the Christian life, then after our baptism we can expect to be tested as to our faith and our faithfulness to God.

People run away with the idea that once we are Christian then all should be sweetness and light, all our problems solved. And that's why people fall away from the Christian life because they've got it all wrong, I'm sorry but they have. It's not the Christian life that there's anything wrong with, the error is with them. They ditch it because its demands are too tough, or the assurances it holds out aren't realised immediately, or the promises are a very long time coming, or indeed prayers seem to be unanswered. What is true about being a Christian is that it is far from an easy ride. It holds no less a call then for our own will to be replaced and supplanted by the will of God. And it's far harder to change the human will than it is simply to train a dog to it's owner's will. And God isn't in the position of a trainer, He never forces His children into anything, He works with us in a sort of partnership where our will gladly submits to His will out of love for Him. The turning of our will to God's will is a response of love, not an animal response like that of our dog, merely out of fear and submission to authority.

But having gladly submitted to God's will out of love, the testing is still there, always, and we see it in Jesus here in this time in the wilderness and the testing can be both subtle and very unsubtle. And a warning now that the language we use here is graphic and not to some people's taste. It's just a way of speaking which I find most helpful, but you can put it into more contemporary language of psychology if you like, it's still the same. It's the devil's job to separate us from God, to stop us living according to God's will, and he has different schemes as weapons in his armoury, one or two in particular.

'If you are the Son of God', the devil says to Jesus - 'If'. The greatest weapon in the devil's armoury is doubt. Plant the seeds of doubt in your mind and the devil has you for ever. The devil doesn't deal in certainty, he deals in doubt. Atheists are easy for the devil, so much so he ignores them in favour of doubters. There's no work to be done there. It's doubt that is the opposite of faith you see. Doubt is a wasteland of mirages, where nothing is real, all is illusion. It's a place where all is possible and nothing is possible and all is unknown. Doubt is a place of fear and torment and horror. And we've all been there and not just in things concerning God or the Church. Who hasn't said 'what if?' about a situation, what if this should happen or that should happen, and lived with the psychological and emotional torment of 'if'? So the devil says to Jesus 'If, you are the Son of God', let's plant that seed of doubt, to undermine everything, most of all Jesus' faith.

And then the devil uses another subtle weapon; untrue perceptions, erroneous points of view, lies instead of truth. 'All this dominion I will give you', he says, as if it's his to give. The world is not the devil's to give. The devil plants the suggestion in the lie though, that it is, and never underestimate the power of suggestion, which can easily trick the human mind into believing a lie. One of the longest and most difficult periods of the Church's history is those early years when the Church was hammering out what it really believes about God and all sorts of points of view were put forward and in the end rejected as error. And those errors are still put about today in one modern form or another. And the devil just wants you to be in thrall to one of those, it doesn't matter which as long as it's not the truth. You can believe a lie and live a lie in the same way as you can believe and live the truth. And believing and living a lie is paying homage to the devil, and separating us from God, as he wanted Jesus to do.

And then finally, another lure into the realm of doubt, the temptation to put God to the test, just as the devil wanted Jesus to do. 'Oh this stuff is no good, it doesn't work, I've been to church it's a load of rubbish'. How many times have we heard this from people who've put God to the test, in their own minds anyway. If you put God to the test it feeds your doubt, always. We have faith in God and love God when we live His life by His commandments and stick to it. And then the life itself is the answer to our doubts, not any so called miracle that may happen along the way - 'turn these stones into bread, jump off this parapet and angels will save you'. 'Just give me a miracle, God, then I can believe in you'; most of us have said it at one time or another. Those so called tests that the devil suggests, aren't pleas for reassurance or faith, they are taunts to cast doubt, to keep us in that wasteland of not really knowing or understanding or believing. People of faith don't need and don't ask for miracles, only people who doubt want miracles.

So doubt and illusion are probably the two most effective weapons in the devil's armoury as he seeks to separate us from God. They can be subtle and soft weapons but no less lethal to our whole life, lethal in very real physical, psychological and spiritual terms to mind, body, soul and spirit. And we need to be ever mindful of them throughout our Christian life, from beginning to end. The final sentence in our gospel reading today says, 'So, having come to the end of all these temptations, the devil departed, biding his time.' The devil's work is never done.

I'd like to conclude with a reference from one of C.S. Lewis's books 'The Screwtape Letters, Letters from a Senior to a Junior devil', which is highly recommended reading especially in Lent, it's quite funny as well as being very serious, it's very easy reading with short chapters and you can now get it with pictures. You just need to know that the Enemy that Screwtape talks about is God. He writes: 'You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts'.

Ash Wednesday

Joel 2.1-2, 12-17; 2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10; Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21

Today we begin the Lenten fast; we begin a time of reflection and study as we prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But why; why do we need this time, this forty days, and how best can we use it?

I've always believed that at the heart of the life of any Christian is our own personal relationship with God, our own response to the Holy Spirit working in us, just how far we are disposed to letting God's Spirit work within us. You see, at our baptism, we were given the grace of the Holy Spirit. God himself, in His Spirit, lodged and working within us. And from that time onwards, all our life as Christians is meant to be directed towards the Holy Spirit working in us and through us, so that we become Christ-like; so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit can be grown in us - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc. and that all our individual dealings with others and the world will be as if Jesus Christ himself were in our shoes and our clothes and our bodies, because it is His Spirit that inhabits us. In reality, from the moment of our baptism, the work of the Holy Spirit is thwarted by our sinful nature and there is a very real spiritual battle for our soul. The image of God in us is obscured by sin and the Holy Spirit's presence and work hampered and undone by sin.

Now we need to understand what we mean by sin. I don't mean just those obvious moral lapses and deviations that we all understand as sin, the ones that the 10 commandments make so plain. The word sin comes from a Greek word that literally means 'missing the mark'. So sin is everything that is contrary to the will of God for us, that misses the mark that is God's Spirit within us. So, our anger, our petty judgementalism, our pride and vanity, our sloth and indolence, all these things are included too. In fact just about anything that damages our own heart, mind, body and soul and that of others too is sin or sinful. We are made in the image and likeness of God, according to scripture and anything that spoils that image or inhibits the likeness of God developing in us is sin. Prior to the fall of Adam and Eve, God's relationship with them was one of perfection and that's what God wants for us now. The death of Jesus makes that possible and more of that at the end of this Lenten season. But we are just at the start of the season and we are asking ourselves what can we do now to help that relationship to be made manifest in us? What can we do to assist the Spirit of God working in us so that being made in the image of God we can grow into His likeness?

Well the answer to that is repentance. It's to get to know and understand our sin, to know the depth of sin in us and the ways in which it has ravaged us; and with repentance, with sorrow for that sin, to turn again to God, who knowing the depth of our sorrow for sin, forgives us. Jesus's first words, according to St. Mark, when he came out of the wilderness were 'The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel'. And the gospel is forgiveness of sins through the death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. The Kingdom of God is within us says Jesus in St. Matthew and those who take it take it by force, he says. And what that means is that if the Kingdom of God is here, at hand within us, it's ours for the taking but there's something we have to do; there's work to be done and that work is the work of repentance and repentance means beating down sin within us and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us as God intends. And that is hard work.

We can get the impression that once we call ourselves Christian and know God's forgiveness there's nothing more to do; that it doesn't really matter if we sin because God will forgive us. And anyway, it's human nature to sin so there is a sense in which it can be expected. Indeed St. Paul asks, should we sin all the more so that God's glory in forgiveness will be seen all the more? And of course the answer is, no way. That's not how it works. We are intended not to sin in the first place. Sin is not human nature, we weren't made to sin, we were made to be perfect, that's why Jesus could say 'be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect'. We are made in the image and likeness of God and there is no place for sin in God, so no natural place for sin in us.

So what's to be done? God gives us this season of Lent to look at our self; to look first of all at our sin, which can be put under eight headings, the eight vices that St. John Cassian of the 4th century described and which the Church in the West later formed into the seven mortal sins: gluttony; unchastity; avarice; anger; dejection; listlessness; self-esteem and pride. There may be one or two there that are surprising and I'm thinking particularly of dejection and listlessness. Yes, even being weary of life and our situation can be sinful. So we look at these things and ask ourselves how much they do stand in the way of God's Spirit working in us. And then we try to take steps in our life to remove them. And it isn't easy. St. John Cassian's writings became the foundation for the Rule of St. Benedict which right to today is the foundation for the life of many monks and nuns, those who live what is called the 'religious life', who give themselves entirely to living the Spirit filled life. And you might say, yes, but we aren't monks and nuns, so how and why should we be expected to follow the same sorts of disciplines. Well, our family, our relationships, our work; our life as members of St. Andrew's, all these our our monastery or convent. And we, no less than monks and nuns are called by Christ to dedicate ourselves to Him and His way. And it's a way of repentance.

Repentance isn't a one off act, it's a life long enterprise that we come to anew each day, as each day we dedicate ourselves anew to Christ, beat down sin and let the Holy Spirit work in us. So the call to us today, this Ash Wednesday is to enter into the discipline of Lent, through the traditional means of fasting, prayer and almsgiving, through study and the reading of the Bible to enter into the spirit of the season fully and dedicate ourselves anew to Christ and His way as we hear Jesus say to us 'The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel'.

Second Sunday before Lent

Revelation chapter 4; Luke 8.22-25

These two readings might look odd when put together at first. But as we look at them we can see that the obvious connection is the Lordship of Christ and of God. Jesus, in the boat, stilling the storm, is seen as Lord and Master of creation. The terror of the disciples in the storm-tossed boat turns to another sort of fear, the fear of God. They look upon Jesus and what he has done with wonder and awe. They were afraid and marvelled at what he'd done; so much so that if nothing else it raises the question in them of who He is. This wasn't the first wondrous act or miracle that the disciples had seen according to St. Luke, from whom we read this morning. But maybe the sheer power exhibited in it caused them to question more deeply; to, as it were, look more deeply into Jesus. In St. Mark's gospel, their question about Jesus rebounds on themselves as Jesus challenges them about their lack of faith.

When we come to the reading from Revelation we are invited to look in on John's vision of heaven. We see God sat upon the throne of heaven surrounded by the 24 elders which may signify the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. And also we see the 4 living creatures which may represent the 4 evangelists; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Around the throne is a rainbow which we recall from the Old Testament is the sign of God's covenant and promise never again to destroy His creation. And also there are all sorts of dramatic effects, thunderings and lightnings and so on going on, with everyone around the throne prostrating themselves and singing their praises to God. It's a scene of magnificence and might and power and also of endless praise to God and thanksgiving.

And as we look on these two scenes, Jesus and His disciples in the boat, and God in heaven being worshipped eternally, I'd like to turn the stories back on us so that we see that they actually show us very graphically two vital ingredients, two essentials of the Christian life. And they are: faith and worship.

The life of a Christian is first of all a life of faith. Jesus's call to His disciples, right from the beginning, was one that demanded faith. 'Where are you staying?' they asked Him. 'Come and see' was His response. 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men', was the challenge he put to the fishermen amongst them and they followed in faith, laying down and leaving behind all in which they put their security and stability and livelihood. So faith is a two sided thing. It's a leaving behind and a looking forward. We see that reflected in both Old Testament and New. Lot's wife, failing to leave all behind, looked back and turned into a pillar of salt; St. Paul strained forward to reach the goal. Jesus Himself said that the farmer doesn't keep looking back when he's ploughing but looks ahead. One of the difficulties here is that we don't know what is up ahead, we don't know what the future holds. We often don't know what the outcome will be in our following Jesus. And we don't fully appreciate His power and His purpose for us. Following Jesus is a journey of discovery, of ourselves, our life purpose and of Him. Faith unfolds the whole thing as we move onward.

The result of this is that living the Christian life, being a follower of Christ, responding to His call and challenge can be at the same time or at different times and stages, terrifying, marvellous, boring, painful and serenely joyful. You just don't know, from one day to the next and sometimes from one moment to the next. Maybe that's why so few fully commit themselves to the life-changing journey and process that faith is and demands. I'm sure that's why less and less people are interested in being Christian these days, because the life is so demanding. We tend to look for and buy and expect ease and comfort these days in all our life, and we want it right now. We see those things as a 'right', something that life owes us even. What we and others tend to forget is that the ultimate goal of the Christian life is joy and peace in the Lord. Stuff that we can't buy and isn't easily gained but is nevertheless real and there to be had. And it's not stuff that will fade or wear out or something we buy or hire for a time. Joy and peace in the Lord isn't time-share stuff, it's eternal. But it's gained by and through faith and in no other way.

And the second vital ingredient of the Christian life our readings show us today is worship. Jesus is Lord, God the almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords, to whom we owe everything - our creation, preservation, redemption and all the blessings of life. Every day we show in our life what our things; our possessions and the people in our life mean to us. We go through little acts of veneration as we offer to them our kindness and our love; to both animate and inanimate things. How much more are we as Christians to show our love to God in and through our acts of worship. That's what we come here for Sunday by Sunday and on weekdays too to do. We show our love for Him in our thanksgiving for our creation and preservation and for all the blessings of this life. Our worship of God is both our duty and our joy as our eucharistic prayers remind us. And most of all we thank God for his great love for us shown in His Son Jesus Christ and for the opportunity He gives us in each moment of each day of sharing in His own life. For that is what we are here, ultimately to do, to share in the very life God.

So faith and worship; two active and vital ingredients in our Christian life, without which our Christian life is not a life at all, it's simply an existence. We can have a Christian existence, a life with the label Christian but which has no faith and no love of God in it. And if it's that it's not worth doing. God calls us to be what He always intended us to be, people of faith, people who can't wait to give Him thanks and worship Him; because He has made that the way, the way to eternal peace and joy.