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Devotional Thought of the Day:

¹⁰  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.    Ephesians 2:10 (NLT2)

²⁰  But you have learned nothing like that from Christ, if you have really heard his voice and understood the truth that he has taught you. No, what you learned was to fling off the dirty clothes of the old way of living, which were rotted through and through with lust’s illusions, and, with yourselves mentally and spiritually re-made, to put on the clean fresh clothes of the new life which was made by God’s design for righteousness and the holiness which is no illusion. Ephesians 4:20 (Phillips NT)

592    Don’t forget that you are just a trash can. So if by any chance the divine gardener should lay his hands on you, and scrub and clean you, and fill you with magnificent flowers, neither the scent nor the colors that beautify your ugliness should make you proud. Humble yourself: don’t you know that you are a trash can?

It seems counter-intuitive, that God relies on us ot do the work that builds His Kingdom, but that we should not take pride in a “job well-done.” We struggle against sin, we try to serve our neighbor, we give of our time talent and treasure, shouldn’t we get a pat on the back? Can’t we take pride in an effort that took our all and more?

To that St. Josemaria’s words seem like a cold, harsh shower. A trash can?  Can’t we be considered a little nicer than that?  Yes, what God pours into us (and what He removes from us) makes all the difference in our lives.

We need to think this through, we need to meditate on what God is doing and has done to our life.  Not only how he cleans us up (justification – Eph. 2:8-9) but how he then plants in us something beautiful, and sweet-smelling.  Even the things we think we’ve buried so deep and hidden get cleaned out and replaced with things that alive, growing, beautiful.

You see, that is what is at the core of worship. The awe that comes in realizing what God has done, how He has cleansed us, how He has empowered us, how He sends us into the communities to reflect His beauty and glory into a world that has become content with brokenness.

What an amazing thing God has done, in the life of each the Holy Spirit has brought home!!!  What He has done is no illusion, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.