A reflection on Matthew 4: 1-11 for those called to missionary service

Lead Us Not Into Any of These Temptations

The temptation is to aim too high;

to act as though the thing you love

is something everyone should do;

because they read what you read,

think as you think;

to act as though the dollars will pour in

as if magnetized by the force of your passion;

to act as though mountains

can be moved with tweezers;

that bureaucracies will fall in awe

at the force of your vision.

In short, the temptation is to think

that it’s all about you.

The temptation is to aim too low;

to act as though the thing you love

would count for nothing in my eyes;

to cast aside a lifetime of dreaming

because dreaming isn’t real;

to think that people are too busy,

too stingy, too self-absorbed to care;

to live in the closed-door world of anxiety

rather than opening the doors to see the possible.

In short, the temptation is to think

that you are not allowed.

The temptation is to aim too safe;

to get the systems all in place;

to crunch the numbers

into the pea gravel of mediocrity;

to dot the “i’s” twice;

to mistake permission for power;

to imagine the new place

as a carbon copy of the now.

In short, the temptation is to pretend

you are leaping when you are hardly jumping.

The temptation is to romanticize;

that you are Schweitzer

heading for Lamborene;

that you are Teresa,

heading for the child-lined streets of Calcutta;

and they are the hopeless, hapless ones

who are the un-people;

the uneducated, the unemployed,

the unenlightened, the uninteresting;

that you have a story,

and they do not.

In short, the temptation is to treat them all

as children who don’t know any better.

The temptation is to think

you have to tough it out;

as though misery is a holy calling;

as though all pain is of God

and has instructive purpose;

as though there is a threshold

with complete success on one side

and total failure on the other;

as though God gives points,

and you either have enough,

or you don’t.

In short, the temptation is to put

all the eggs of your faith in this basket.

The temptation is to think it’s all about you.

The temptation is to think that you’re not allowed.

The temptation is to think that you are leaping when you are hardly jumping.

The temptation is to treat them all as children who don’t know any better.

The temptation is to put all the eggs of your faith in one basket.

Holy One, lead them not into temptation.

Holy One, lead us not into temptation.

© 2003 John Thornburg