Living Yes
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.' [Matt 6:9-13 - The Message]
“I did answer Yes,” wrote Dag Hammarskjold in his private journal, “Markings” on New Year's day 1953.
Who was he saying yes to? Yes to God and yes to whatever that commitment
meant as he lived life and all the challenges that came his way. That life
included a season of intense personal darkness from which emerged his first
statement to say yes, and later into a very public role as the United Nations
Secretary-General 1955-1961. It was a role that would require great courage as
he negotiated peace in China, the Suez Crisis and in the Congo where he died in
a plane crash. His journal revealed that each year, he said yes. He lived “yes”.
A yes, that said, “Not I, but God in me.” When I first read
this account of Dag Hammarskjold, I didn’t appreciate the depth or
understanding of what living Yes meant. Yet his words have echoed in my mind.
“Yes”! His yes was always directed at
God. However, as I continue to follow
Jesus Christ, I realise that every day begins with a “Yes”. Yes, to “seeking first the kingdom of God”
before my own agenda. Yes, to the will of God, today, or for this moment, even
when that will differs to mine. Jesus,
lived “yes” to His Father, that Yes saw miracles, challenged the status quo,
and included a cross. It is Yes, to love, yes to faith, yes to joy, yes to
challenging times and yes to sacrifice.
Living Yes, means saying no.
No to fear, no to the negative voices, no to despair, no to taking
offence, no to the dark side of self, no to social norms, no to the temptation
to compare or justify
Living Yes, is living a God-surrendered life. Yes, to whatever you bring to me, yes to the
good and the bad times, yes, that your grace is sufficient for all I need, yes
to prayer and yes to the answers given – even when that answer is a no, or something quite unexpected, or
disappointing. Instead in “kiwi slang”
our response is more “yeah, nah”!! Yes
but not really yes, actually more a no. When we say “no” we block the flow of
God’s power, grace and love.
Jesus, miracle worker, prophet, Son of God, stood before his
home crowd and declared that the Spirit of God
was upon him to heal, to release the captive, to preach good news, to
declare God’s favour and his home crowd said “No!” Jesus was unable to work any miracles in his
home town.
To receive any gift from God depends on us saying and living
Yes.
So here at the beginning of a new year, I say, "Yes!" Yes to You, Lord, yes to whatever is in store. Yes in trust that You, ablaze in beauty, yet our Father, who loves us and cares deeply for us, can be trusted to "do what's best, to set the world (my world) right". Yes. Yes. Yes!!
(a) Quoted
from “Streams of Living Water” by Richard Foster ©1998 [Harper Collins]
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