Lent Devotional: Chosen

One of the Scripture for today, the Tuesday of Holy Week is found in the Book of Isaiah. I have always had compassion for the prophets of the Old Testament.  God asks them to do some pretty strange things in the name of calling people back to connection with God.  Their voices are powerfully filled with compassion and yearning for their own people to listen and heed God's call.  The people don't listen, they are stuck in their ways, they are not so sure Isaiah (Jeremiah..and the like) really are worth listening to.  Change is hard anyways, right?

This is the voice of Isaiah, claiming his "chosen-ness" by God for the prophetic work to which he is dedicated.  

49 Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
    and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

5 And now the Lord says—
    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
    and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord
    and my God has been my strength—
6 he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
    to restore the tribes of Jacob
    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

7 This is what the Lord says—
    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
    to the servant of rulers:
“Kings will see you and stand up,
    princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

What does it mean to be chosen by God?  This week, more than most, we take the time to reflect on God's deep love for us, choosing us even over the life Jesus.  How do you live out your belovedness?  What does it mean for you to know that you have been chosen?  Like Isaiah has said so powerfully, people will come to know the power of God because of God's faithfulness, not because of who Isaiah is - and the same is true for each of us!

How does your life speak the presence of God?  How do you make God famous?  

Prayer:  Powerful and Loving God, today we thank you for choosing us.  Help us to live not out of our human-ness, but out of your chosen-ness.  May we also remember that there are so many who long to know what it means to find the source of Love, Light, and Goodness.  Help our voices to speak the prophetic Truth of faith.  Amen.