As disciples, we must be ready for Jesus to appear at every moment. This isn’t easy, no matter what our experience is. Our battle isn’t so much against sin or difficulties or circumstances; it’s against being so absorbed in our work that we fail to notice the Son of Man when he comes. And yet, this is the great need: not answering questions about our beliefs or our creeds or whether we are useful but being ready for him.

Jesus rarely comes where we expect him. He comes where we do not expect him, and through the most illogical chains of events. The only way a disciple can be true to God is by being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It isn’t service that matters; it’s intense spiritual reality; it’s being ready to welcome Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder God wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus, we have to stop being “religious.” That is, we have to stop treating religion as a higher kind of culture and become spiritually real. When we are spiritually real, Jesus is able to use us as he likes; at any second, he can visit others through us.

If you are looking to Jesus, if you’re setting your heart on what he wants and avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, you will be considered unpractical and dreamy. But when he appears in the burden and the heat of the day, you will be the one who is ready.

Trust no one who blocks your sight of Jesus Christ, not even the most devout Christian who ever walked the earth. Be always ready to greet the Lord, especially where you least expect him.

Wisdom from Oswald

“I have chosen you” (John 15:16). Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you.  My Utmost for His Highest, October 25, 837 R