Friday, May 12, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading
Matthew 7:7–14

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (NRSV)

Reflection
When I heard of the famed 1972 Stanford marshmallow child experiment, I knew I would have stuffed the marshmallow in my mouth as soon as it was placed on the plate. No delayed gratification, and second marshmallow, for me. Also, no life of success like the young test subjects who managed to wait patiently with the marshmallow on their plates to earn a second, an omen of higher grades and greater personal wealth in their futures as found by the researchers over the next fifty years.

Luckily Jesus does not give us the marshmallow test.

Jesus provides us with other choices for a successful — eternal — life. In this section from Matthew, the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us how to engage in a life with purpose.

“Enter through the narrow gate” which opens to a more difficult path, Jesus advises. This path is hard and less crowded but also the one that leads to a full life. Jesus admonishes us to avoid the wide gate where the “road is easy” but leads to our destruction. This wider road, which is chosen by most, appears easy because it only requires us to pretend to be righteous.

In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” the poet makes clear the importance of our choices:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood; and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Jesus tells us we have one road to choose — love.

Prayer
Dear God, while we make choices on our incredible journey of life, where a marshmallow or two may distract us, thank you for teaching us that love — with its joy, wonder, and suffering — is your path. Amen.

Written by Phil Calian, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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