Open Eyes

Luke 24:13-32

I've always loved the story of the road to Emmaus. I've pictured it in my head, longing to be one of the two people who walked with the "disguised" Jesus. How wonderful it must have been to have your eyes opened the way they did concerning the prophecies regarding Jesus and then to have them opened again at the dinner table! "Whoa! I knew there was something special about that guy!"

Today, Oswald talked about satisfying lust and how it leads to dejection, depression and oppression. He's not talking about lust the way we have come to think of it but lust as the desire that whatever it is that we want, we must have it NOW. It becomes overwhelmingly consuming in our life. And when we lust after something, that overwhelming consumption removes God from the throne and usurps his place.

I have lusted after things in this manner: a new job, a new house, peace in a relationship. I have allowed myself to be consumed with receiving the answer to my prayers. I have unwittingly been just like the travelers on the road to Emmaus who were so insistant on getting their answer to prayer- their redeemer for Israel- that they completely missed the fact that He was walking side by side with them!!! Like those travelers, I have been so worried about what did or didn't happen on the third day that I have missed the point of the crisis: an opportunity to find Him, right by my side.

Oh, Lord, may it be that my eyes will be open at the start of the journey and that my prayers will find me right where I need to be: in fellowship with you rather than searching frantically for my answer.