My burden is light.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Psalm 146:1-2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

I will trust in the Lord.

I will trust in the Lord.

I will trust in the Lord until I die I will trust in the Lord.

I will trust in the Lord.

I will trust in the Lord until I die.  

I'm goin' to treat everybody right.

I'm goin' to treat everybody right.

I'm goin' to treat everybody right until I die I'm goin' to treat everybody right.

I'm goin' to treat everybody right.

I'm goin' to treat everybody right until I die.

I'm goin' to stay on a bended knee.

I'm goin' to stay on a bended knee.

I'm goin' to stay on a bended knee until I die

I'm goin' to stay on a bended knee.

I'm goin' to stay on a bended knee.

I'm goin' to stay on a bended knee until I die.

It’s actually pretty clear, as one continues to read the letter to the Romans, that it is not so much the what, but the how of what it means to live in Christ Jesus:

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

In fact, ol’ James is very clear that it is not the what, and he prefaces his direction with an exclamatory phrase: Come on, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

A thing about traveling is that one travels detached from the local happenings, observing from third person. Right now I am hanging out in a mostly agricultural community with just a smidge of small industry watching other people live their lives. And somehow as folks nod a friendly Buongiorno

 to the grandpas sitting under the tree or shout greetings to two little boys messing around with their bike tires or stop for a midafternoon espresso or chat with the young man whose brother died in car accident, I thought about the young Jesus, living his life before the massive crowds were following, the ins and outs of helping a neighbor repair busted doors or pulling a few grapes off of the backyard vines.

Simply living, doing good.

And after the dove descended upon Him in the river Jordan, a voice from heaven announced to all who had ears to hear, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then He kept right on living, making certain to set aside time apart to renew His mind, to renew his prayer Not My will, but Thy will be done every single morning, and then He walked forth, noticing, pausing, actively and intentionally doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly. 

The much eagerly awaited rain is pouring down. So I will walk tomorrow and paint today.

If the Lord wills.

And the hawk screams overhead

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:7-8

Then why do we pray?

We pray to remind ourselves of what is true. Prayer is truth-speaking into a situation and into our heart.  We do not need to persuade our Father of what is good, no best, for a situation (unless we are Moses standing in the gap for the people of Israel, and even then this was really Moses deciding that he was willing to continue with this bunch of ungrateful nincompoops–reminding himself of the truth, all of the power and love of God already tangibly and purposefully demonstrated and poured out for these ungrateful and unfaithful wretches just like me). 

We are reminding ourselves to leave it in His hands.  

Weston spoke of this in last night’s meditations.  He counted “Father” 19 times in John, chapter 14.  Not only did Christ come to destroy sin and death, but he also came that we might know the Father.  

“The Father completes us, heals us, fulfills our longings and burning need for love. We are broken inside, searching for love, acceptance and security. This is the complete love that our Dad in heaven lavishes upon His kids. And I'm not taking anything away from the Son. But our Father accesses that part of our heart that just screams out for the love needed in the most innocent and childlike part of the soul. We are perfectly loved in the Father. Perfect love drives out fear. If God loves me completely what have I to fear?

Jesus says everything He does is not just Him, but the Father living in Him doing His work.

"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would be glad I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I."

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew Me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."

Let us trust Jesus. It's all about coming to the Father.”

And this is what Jesus modeled for us, at the fulcrum point of all time and history and everything we can imagine, when every ounce of sunlit theory was stripped from prayer and it was all that He had left, as He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane: Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.

Not my will, but Yours be done.

As I open up my prayer list of beloved Wednesday names.

Not my will, but Yours be done.

As I scan the unfamiliar student names neatly printed in my otherwise empty gradebook.

Not my will, but Yours be done.

And as I take one last stride through the neighborhood creosote silhouette against the billowing sunrise, mulling over ever-so-many details.

Not my will, but Yours be done.