DAY 28: Let them choose

‘Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will”.’ Matthew 26:39

The news came on Christmas Eve.

My wife put down the phone, walked into the bedroom and burst into tears. We were living in Australia then and had been visiting family in Brisbane, but decided we needed some time alone. So, we packed our bags and started the twelve hour drive home to Sydney. That phone call would bring to an end a 2010 full of broken dreams.

We went to ground for a few days, trying to heal, then on a Saturday morning a few days later started replying to the emails of our concerned friends.

‘Is there anything I can do?’ my friend Darren had written.

‘You’re one of the few people I could handle talking to right now,’ I replied. ‘Got any time for a coffee?’

Darren lived two hours away.

‘I’ll be there by midday,’ he said.

Darren and I met in a coffee shop. I recounted the sordid saga and he listened to my pain and anger for the rest of the afternoon. He came back to our place for dinner, prayed for my wife and me, then left in the evening for his long journey home.

Darren is a busy man with a wife and kids and plenty of things he could’ve been doing with his Saturday. But he relinquished it for a friend. Echoing Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, he gave up his will to do another’s. He didn’t suggest that I come to him—he let me choose the place and the activity.

How about following Darren’s example? As we give up something for Lent this Easter, how about giving up some time, some choice and some freedom?

How about giving yourself to someone today and letting their will be done?