The Dean of Students at my alma mater was a retired colonel who previously was in charge of discipline at West Point. He was a tough cookie to face if you had broken one of the many rules governing Houghton students. (Ask me how I know this.) As part of his standard lecture, he always quoted the Cadet Prayer from the Academy: “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong…”
I’m sure that Dean Danner thought everything he said to me went in one ear and out the other, but that admonition stuck… a little too good. It’s true that sometimes the wrong way is at least initially the easy way, but the opposite is not necessarily true. I came to believe that the hard way must be God’s way just because it was hard. I came to believe that God’s will must always be the opposite of what I would like to do. I misconceived of God as a cosmic killjoy.
What I failed to account for is the power of God to shape our desires and loves to conform to His will. When our hearts and wills are given over to God we don’t have to distrust our desires. Of course it is crucial to give God authority over your will and your desires. That’s what the Psalmist is praying:
Teach
me to do your will, for you are my God.
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path. (Psalm 143:10)
We make hundreds of judgments and decisions every day and it is unlikely that we stop to ask for God’s guidance for most of them. We follow our hearts and our wills. That’s why I repeat the prayer at the end of this posting nearly every morning; so that wrong desires might not gain a foothold in my heart and lead me to wrong actions.
Prayer: (from the Book of Common Prayer)O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness during the day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.