God Desires Us to Be “All In”
One is a song I came across this past year and fell in love with because of the passionate desire to live “recklessly abandoned, never holding back” for God that is expressed in it. It’s “Live Like That” by Sidewalk Prophets. (“If love is who I am, then this is where I stand, recklessly abandoned, never holding back.”) Take a minute to listen…
God wants that from us, don’t you think? For us to be “all in”? To be on fire with and for our faith? I know that’s what I want in my life and that’s what I want for our little ones! The lyrics remind me of some of my favorite quotes:
“When we are who we are made to be, we will set the world on fire.” –St. Catherine of Sienna
“I hope you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for – maybe even worth dying for – something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead.” —Ita Ford, one of the four churchwomen murdered in El Salvador
“I love because I choose to love.” –Dorothy Day
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.” -from Mk 12:28b-34
Amazing, aren’t they?
The second song that came to mind, Take, Lord, Receive, is really a prayer by St. Ignatius – the Suscipe. Whether spoken or sung, it so powerfully expresses our offering back to God of all that we are, trusting that with God all will indeed be well:
“Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To You, O lord, I return it. All is Yours. Do with it what You will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.”
When I hear songs like “Live Like That” and read quotes like those above, I am inspired to pour myself out in love… and to invite others to do the same. And when I join St. Ignatius in his prayer and offer my entire self to God, everything in me is still… and I rest with God in profound peace.
Like the widow and so many holy men and women who have gone before us, God desires us to be “all in”. Our work, our parenting, our relationships – everything we are – takes on new meaning when, firmly rooted in the awareness that we are God’s own and everything we are and have is gift, we rest in God and ask God to lead us. Take, Lord, receive. We are yours.
Karon Latham lives in rural Michigan where she strives to create a world marked by justice as a mostly stay-at-home mom to three little ones, ages 2, 4 & 5. She also works part-time as the Director of Faith Formation for three small parishes and is involved in retreat ministry. She has a MAPM from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, CA, and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. Karon served with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Montana from 1995 to 1996.
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