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Forsaken? Ponder Hard Lenten lesson DESIGNPICS


Augustine, bishop of ancient Hippo-Regius, observed that the God who created us without us refuses


H Matthews is a member of Muhlenberg Lutheran Church, Harrisonburg, Va.


ow should we spend this Lenten time—this darkness before the tomb empties?


14 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org By William R. Matthews


to save us without us. Meditating on the Jesus Prayer this morning (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”), I was struck again by how infre- quently I see myself in partner- ship with the Lord. If Augustine is right—if God gave me the responsibility for making myself worthy of his presence—I often fail. Saved by faith alone requires acts of faith on my part every day, especially this Lenten season. I can’t avoid this responsibil- ity by asserting that God runs my life. That is a bit too much like the old doctrine of predestination. How awful to think that for nine decades I have been a mere pup- pet in a play, with someone hov- ering above the stage pulling the strings. That would put God in charge of the horrors: hurricanes, wars, starvation, human cruelty and all the petty daily agonies of life.


Of course, I can’t knead myself into a perfect shape without help. Like this essay, no matter how many drafts, it will never be perfect. I must pray for assistance as I strive to live by the natural and moral laws of God’s creation—according to his


priorities, not my own. It seems unfair—that unreachable human goal Christ set before us: even in the agony of the end to be able to say, and mean, “Father, forgive them ....” I need the struggle to be better tomorrow than I am


today. Men of my generation often ask themselves why they were spared in World War II or in the Korean War.


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