Priest (Priest, #1)

by Sierra Simone

And at the end of the night, I made our prayer brief and to the point. “God, the psalmist tells us that your word is like a lamp to our feet—that even though we don’t always know where you are leading us, you promise that you will show us the next step. Please keep your lamp burning for us, so that our next step—our next hour and our next day—is clear. Amen.”

“But then I realized that the danger of preaching this was that you might walk out of this building today with an image of God as a small and narrow god—a god as small and narrow as that gate. I realized that you could walk out of here and believe—really and truly believe—that if you fail once, if you slip and act like the messy, flawed human that you are, that God doesn’t want you.”

“God is bigger than our sins. God wants you as you are—stumbling, sinning, confused. All He asks of us is love—love for Him, love for others, and love for ourselves. He asks us to lay down our lives—not to live like ascetics, devoid of any pleasure or joy, but to give Him our lives so that He may increase our joy and increase our love.”

But that’s what’s been promised to us, and I for one, will not refuse God’s promise of a full, love-filled life. Will you?” I stepped back behind the lectern, exhaling with relief. I’d said what I needed to say. And now it was time to lay down my life.