Having it the Lord's way

I can still hear my mother's voice from childhood days gone by, her retort whenever I would say, "I thought."

She would say, "You know what thought did don't ya?"

She would follow that statement with one example after another of things that went bad when we think of doing things only our way with a full disregard for how it affects others.

Nowadays it's affectionately termed, in our fellowship, Burger Kingitis. Do you remember the slogan, "hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us, all we ask is that you let us, have it your way"?

It seems we want that even in our walk with the Lord. Have it your way Christianity.

If I don't like the way you do it, I'll go someplace else. If you don't do what I want, say the things I like to hear, and I don't feel good about myself when I leave, I am not coming back.

Bulletins become menus. Lights are turned into ambiance. Stage productions that allow us to sit and be waited on. Worship is the entertainment and we become the served.

Please don't read this as cynicism or criticism, more of an observation. What would it have been like at the ground called Calvary's cross, the place of the skull, if the slogan was "hold the puncture, hold the lacerations, don't want the crucifixion to upset us, all we ask is that you let us, have it our way?"

Christ didn't approach the crucifixion with a "have it your way" mindset.

Naaman approached Elisha in 2 Kings 5 with a "have it your way" desire for healing. When he didn't get his way he was furious and enraged until a faithful servant brought reason and logic and he obeyed the word that the prophet gave. It wasn't the water of the Jordan that brought healing, it was when he obeyed the word that the prophet had given that the outcome resulted in healing to his leprous life.

Lord may we as believers and followers of Jesus Christ be ones that are willing to say, "we will have it your way and only your way. Your special orders don't upset us. All we ask you Lord is that you let us have it your way, have it your way."

• Pat Propster is pastor of Calvary Chapel in Carson City.