Nashville: I’m tired. Really tired. Especially tired of failing and then covering it up with a smile.
Jesus: “I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground.”
Nashville: I can’t see that. And it’s not just me. The whole world is a mess. What about 9/11? What about all the horrible things that keep happening?
Jesus: “I form light and I create darkness. I make well-being and I create calamity. I am the Lord, who does all these things.”
Nashville: That scares me. I don’t want one God over all. I want many spiritual paths, all okay. That leaves me in control.
Jesus: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.”
Nashville: So let’s say you are God. Let’s say you even love me. But why? You know all my secrets. Why do you love me?
Jesus: “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
Nashville: If I open my heart to you, don’t I risk ending up a fool? What if you fail, like everything else in my life?
Jesus: “By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”
Nashville: And if I refuse?
Jesus: “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.”
Nashville: And if I say yes?
Jesus: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Nashville: But I’m so sinful.
Jesus: “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
Nashville: But I’m so weak, so very weak.
Jesus: “A bruised reed I will not break, and a faintly burning wick I will not quench. I will lead the blind in a way they do not know, in paths they have not known I will guide them. I do not forsake them.”
HT: Isaiah the prophet
