March 2: Present Your Entire Self to God
♫ Music:
Day 18 - Saturday, March 02
Title: PRESENT YOUR ENTIRE SELF TO GOD
Scripture: Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Poetry & Poet:
“Longing, Lenten”
by Brett Foster
The walk back, more loss. When I open the door
it's over, so I set to piddling: tidy
end tables, check the mail, draw a bath.
The restless energy finally settles
as I pass the mirror. I peer into it.
My nose touches glass. Not much left,
already effaced, not even a cross
to speak of. A smudge. A few black soot stains
like pin points on the forehead. The rest
of the blessed ash has vanished to a grey
amorphousness, to symbolize... not much.
Except a wish for those hallowed moments
to be followed by sustaining confidence.
Except spirit, which means to shun its listless
weight for yearning, awkward if not more earnest
prayer and fasting in the clear face of dust.
AN AWKWARD, EARNEST SACRIFICE
When I hear the Apostle Paul’s command to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, I envision the physical torments inflicted on the persecuted Church, or maybe the backbreaking labor carried out in service of the poor. My own living sacrifice feels meager in comparison. My hands take out the trash and cook dinner; my legs carry me in and out of rooms to talk about books. It feels insufficient, stacked up against the dramatic example of the saints.
Lent is an equally dramatic season. It is the only time of year I wait in a line, waiting for someone to tell me: “You are going to die.” Our images of Lent are dramatic: ashen crosses, purple cloth, Christ praying in the wilderness, in Gethsemane. We approach the season’s penitence and prayer to be met with the equally dramatic expression of grace. Lenten services and devotions reassure us that God forgives all who truly repent: to hear this after confronting our shortcomings, our doubts, and our disappointments, is almost like hearing it for the first time.
And then we return to our lives. And we take out the trash and make dinner. The dramatic message of God’s forgiveness, that just recently seemed so overwhelming, is crowded out by the obligations and distractions of the day.
Brett Foster’s haunting poem puts us in this very moment. Returning from an Ash Wednesday service, the speaker walks in his own front door and resumes his place in the everyday world. Restless, he shifts from task to inconsequential task—until a mirror reminds him of the smudged cross “like pin points on the forehead.” This lingering soot symbolizes, the poem tells us, “a wish for those hallowed moments / to be followed by sustaining confidence.” Foster gives words to the grief we often feel when our most dramatic encounters with God feel impermanent, like fading soot worn away by our sweat.
Foster’s poem doesn’t give us an easy way out of this grief; but neither does it abandon us there. The smudged cross, we are told, also symbolizes:
Spirit, which means to shun its listless
weight for yearning, awkward if not more earnest
prayer and fasting in the clear face of dust.
Foster gives weight to our yearning, pitting it against the “listless weight” which the spirit rejects. This yearning requires us to approach God in full awareness of our lack and spiritual poverty. Our devotion is imperfect, awkward, and, perhaps as a result, more earnest. It is in this same attitude that we present our bodies—imperfect and awkward—as living sacrifices. Of course, we also present them as holy. But that holiness is not the result of our own righteousness, just as our prayer is not the result of our own enlightenment. Because of course, it is “by the mercies of God” that the Apostle commands us to offer our sacrifice. Even—maybe especially—in our most mundane experiences, the God for whom we yearn is the same who gives us the grace to seek Him.
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
–––Proper 12, Book of Common Prayer, 2019
Jonathan Diaz
Ph.D Candidate, Baylor University
Alumnus of Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Surrender
Robert Besana
2021
Oil on canvas
56 x 96 in.
About the Artist:
Robert Besana (b. 1976) is a painter who graduated from the Philippine Women’s University’s Fine Arts program in 2003 and completed his master’s degree in 2009. He is currently the program director of the School of Multimedia Arts of Asia Pacific Colleges in Makati, Philippines. Since his student days he has been participating in numerous local group exhibits, as well as garnering awards from various local competitions. Besana is drawn to religious themes, as evident across his oeuvre, which showcases a modern reimagining of old masters. “I’m personally overwhelmed with the amount of imagery the church has produced and how it transcends through generations and different cultures,” he explained. The artist also adopts these images as crucial elements to retell stories of faith in a more contemporary point of view and style for today’s audiences.
http://www.imagomundiart.com/artworks/robert-besana-now-where-would-i-land/
https://www.manilatimes.net/2018/05/27/weekly/the-sunday-times/robert-besanas-contemporary-martyrdom/401270/
About the Music:
“I Surrender All” from the album Hymns & Voices
Lyrics:
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence daily live
All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at his feet, I bow
Worldly pleasures are forsaken
Take me Jesus, take me now
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly thine;
Let thy Holy Spirit, fill me
Then I’ll know thy power divine
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
About the Composers:
Judson W. Van DeVenter (lyricist) and Winfield S. Weeden (music)
"I Surrender All" is a Christian hymn with words written by American art teacher and musician Judson W. Van DeVenter (1855–1939), who subsequently became a music minister and evangelist. The lyrics were put to music by Winfield S. Weeden (1847–1908) and published in 1896. Van DeVenter said of the inspiration for the text: “For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing.” "I Surrender All" has continued to appear in numerous English-language hymnals since its publication. It is both a classic hymn and, due to its gospel-like nature, also one that is performed by churches that prefer contemporary music. In the late 1930s, when popular international evangelist Billy Graham was a student at Florida Bible Institute, he studied and fellowshipped with Judson Van DeVenter, and later stated that Van DeVenter greatly influenced his early preaching. Graham subsequently popularized "I Surrender All" in his massive crusades and revivals beginning in the late 1940s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Surrender_All
Winfield S. Weeden (1847–1908) was born in Middleport, Ohio. In his early life he was active in teaching singing schools throughout that area in Ohio. As singer and associate to Judson Van DeVenter in his evangelistic campaigns, Weeden assisted in meetings at East Palestine and Sebring. He compiled several collections of hymns, among them The Peacemaker, Songs of the Peacemaker, and Songs of Sovereign Grace.
https://hymnary.org/person/Weeden_WS
About the Performer:
Priscilla Marie Winans Love, known professionally as CeCe Winans (b. 1964) is the best-selling female gospel artist of all time, with thirty-one GMA Dove Awards, seventeen Stellar Awards, seven NAACP Image Awards, along with many other awards and honors to her credit. Winans is one of the greatest gospel artists of all time and is the most-awarded and best-selling gospel act of all time. She rose to prominence as a member of the duo BeBe & CeCe Winans before launching an acclaimed solo career. Winans first went to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1981 as a singer on the Christian telecast The PTL Club, hosted by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Although originally part of the larger Winans family singing group, CeCe and her older brother BeBe became a duo during their time at PTL. CeCe and BeBe released their first album, Lord Lift Us Up (1984), for PTL Records. They achieved crossover success, eventually releasing nine gold and platinum recordings, billed as BeBe & CeCe Winans. Winans left PTL in 1984 just before getting married and her brother left in 1985. They released their second album in 1987: BeBe & CeCe Winans. Winans began her solo career with the album Alone in His Presence (1995). It sold more than a million copies and earned her a Grammy Award and two Dove Awards, including the Female Vocalist of the Year. Winans' next release, the gold-certified Everlasting Love (1998), featured Winans' highest-charting solo singles: "Well Alright" and "Slippin.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CeCe_Winans
http://www.cecewinans.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Brett Foster (1973–2015) was a professor of English and Wheaton University’s poet-in-residence. He earned bachelor degrees in English and journalism at the University of Missouri. He received a M.A. in English at Boston University and his Ph.D. in English at Yale University. He was also a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Dr. Foster’s award-winning publications include The Garbage Eater and Fall Run Road. He also shared his poetry and expertise at readings at The Poetry Foundation in Chicago, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and many other venues before his untimely passing.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-brett-foster-obituary-met-20151202-story.html
About the Devotion Writer:
Jonathan Diaz
Ph.D. Candidate, Baylor University
Alumnus of Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Jonathan Diaz is an alumnus and former faculty member at Biola University. He is currently a Ph.D candidate studying religious profession in Latino Literature at Baylor University. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Latino Book Review, EcoTheo Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and AGNI Magazine. He lives in Texas with his wife, Abigail.