The Only Gift We Can Give

As we enter Advent and near the celebration of the birth of Christ, the time of gift giving, we will spend the next few weeks trying to figure out what to give each other for Christmas.

Two weeks ago one of our priests gave an exceptional homily on this subject. For the previous month our church had been working on the time, talent, treasure volunteers for church parishioners. In the homily, the priest mentioned that all that we have promised to give to the church, our time, our talents and our treasure, God already owns. Since we are His creations and those items were also created by Him we are therefore not really giving God anything that he doesn't already possess.

It was an interesting thought. Than what can I give to God that is uniquely mine?

The priest went onto explain that the only thing we can actually offer God is our will. Since God gave us free will, we have the ability to ignore his call and ignore his existence, if we'd so like. Our will, our decisions and choices that exemplify our will, is the only thing that we possess that we can offer to God.

Trading my will for God's will. Hmmmm. That's the tough part, isn't it? Surrendering what we want for what God wants, trusting that He will bring us down the right path. Unforutnately, God's path is often fraught with challenges and struggles, but is ultimately more rewarding than anything we can conjur up ourselves. But it's that impending struggle through which we grow that we all fear that most and why we all hold onto our will so tightly.

The only thing I can give to God is my will.

Will I? I'll try.

One decision, one choice at a time.