Closer to home

Return to him. Walk on home. What a wonderful, wonderful invitation this morning.

"Even now, declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. Joel 2: 12-13

So, there you have it. Return to him. Fast to him. Weep to him. Mourn to him. Tear up your heart. Return. Return. Return.

Buried in that is an admission there is a reason one must return, meaning of course that we've been away. Of course, the prophet Joel had on his mind the nation of Judah instead of us, but the message works the same.

We, all of us but especially me, need to remember this admonition more often than once a year on Ash Wednesday. We need to see the promise found here: "And afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

So, today, I ask forgiveness for all I've done to hinder the growth of three churches, all I've done to hinder the growth of my marriage, all I've done to hinder to the growth of myself. I ask forgiveness for what I've done to further the growth of my selfishness, and my ego, and my pride. I ask forgiveness for not being all I can be, for not being the man, the father, the husband, the pastor, the preacher I could be.

Today, I ask that through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, that I be made one step closer (okay, okay, You can do it all if you want) to being whom you would not only want me to be, but whom you see me as.

And today I thank you that I'm not whom I was yesterday or the day before. That the chipping away of the bad is an on-going process.

Today, I wander one step, one day closer to home. I'm coming back, Lord. I'm coming back.