Hope in Lifelong Conversion – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Our lesson from the Book of Genesis recalls Jacob on his deathbed. To listen to him recounting his life, claiming his lineage with Abraham and Sarah, Rebekah and Leah, in the presence of his sons, and naming the ancestral ground on which he wants to be buried is quite beautiful. This is noble, faithful Jacob at the end of his life. But this is not the picture of Jacob in is younger years: Jacob, the schemer and the cheat, who behaved so disreputably with his very family. The psalmist remembers Jacob: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” But in the verses before that, the psalmist speaks quite biographically about Jacob, “Though the earth be moved, and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea…The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”[i] In his younger years, Jacob’s ambitious, disreputable life had come toppling down, and then, over his lifetime, he was rescued by God.
Our founder, Richard Meux Benson, writes about our conversion being lifelong. Lifelong conversion can seem onerous and full of duty and repentance on our part.[ii] I am daily reminded of my own need for ongoing conversion. I am a work-in-progress, and there’s plenty of work to be done. You, too, may know about this. But lifelong conversion also comes with the hope that God is at work in our lifetime, going back in our past, undoing, remaking, redeeming, reforming what was lost, spent, and misdirected. Father Benson speaks the comforting words, that “we cannot bound into the depths of God at one spring; if we could we should be shattered, not filled. God draws us on.” God draws us on. Which is clearly the picture of Jacob, and a hope for us.
[i] Psalm 46:1-4.
[ii] Richard Meux Benson, SSJE (1824–1915).
My late brother was a work in progress, and his memoirs read in such a way that I don’t think he would have minded that description. He was modest about his abilities and ready to ascribe his successes to “good luck.” In reality, he relied on attention to detail and foresight. For example, there was the time we gained admittance to Boston Garden to see the Celtics without tickets because my brother remembered the numbers on the tickets he had misplaced. He was cool under pressure and kept the facts in mind.He took calculated risks and then waited, sometimes anxiously, for the favorable result. Clearly, he didn’t always win, but overall his grit and determination brought success. My bother was much like Jacob though he would not have said so. God was with him, and God will remain his stronghold in the life to come. Amen
Brother Curtis, your sermons and messages always lift me up and give me hope, placing me right where I need to be. Thank you! Blessings to you ,Brother Curtis.
Summer really is a wonderful time to take a break. Stop trying so hard (readthe Bible! pray three times a day! etc)and let God do his work in me. If I open myself to God, I find I grow spiritually more than if I try really really hard. God did his work in Jacob, and he is ready to do it in me
“A work in progress”; I am certainly that! I’m thinking that God needs a break from his working and shaping me over these many years. But I pray God doesn’t give up on me, and He has seen some good in the works I have accomplished, and will find more good works in my remaining years on earth, and in my life in heaven.