Blank Check

Have you ever had to write a check when writing the amount made you feel uncomfortable and uneasy because the cost was high?

I'm reminded of the scene in the second Father of the Bride movie where George Banks writes a check for $100,000 to buy back his house after an impulsive decision to sell it. For a man who did not like to spend money, writing and submitting that check was pure agony.

A long time ago, I told God that I was giving him a blank check with my life. It was signed and submitted, made out to Him for Him to do with as He pleased.

I don't regret that decision, but living with it isn't always easy. What God asks of us and what He wants to do with our lives doesn't always align with our plans. It's often uncomfortable and inconvenient, sometimes even painful. It isn't God that's the problem. It's me.

I'm a sinner who struggles with selfishness, materialism, and pride. I don't see the big picture. I don't always understand why or get answers to all of my questions. I just know that I'm called to trust and obey.

God alone knows what to do with this blank check that is my life. If I held on to this check, I'd squander it. I would get to the end of my life and wished I would have lived it differently. I wouldn't be happy. I wouldn't be satisfied. Satisfaction comes from submission to the Father.

In the hymn "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go," George Matheson makes the statement, "I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow, May richer, fuller be."

God has the ability to take this blank check, to take my life, and to invest it, making more from it than I ever could on my own. He has the ability to use my life and to do things through me that are utterly disproportionate to who I am.

Not only that, but He is faithful and loving. He can be trusted. He is all-powerful, and He cares for us.

What do you want more than anything else in the world? Do you want God's will at any cost? Are you willing to give Him a blank check with your life?

"If thy dear Home be fuller, Lord,
For that a little emptier
My house on earth, what rich reward
That guerdon were."
-Amy Carmichael, Kohila