In whatever idiotic way

And if he is the truth and the life, we will find it out soon enough for ourselves, you can be sure of that. If we want to find it out, if we are willing to draw near in whatever idiotic way we can, all our reservations and doubts notwithstanding, because little by little we find out then that to be where he is, to go where he goes, to see through eyes and work with hands like his is to feel like ourselves at last, is to become fully ourselves at last and fully each other’s at last, and to become finally more even than that: to become fully his at last.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Sign by the Highway”

Fully his. His possession, one he gave everything to possess. One he wooed so ardently and faithfully, though ignored with indifference beyond reckoning. One who in every idiotic way avoided and shunned and disbelieved the message: “You, you are my beloved; come be with me. Forever. I will never leave nor forsake you.” For the very first time in my long walk I can claim in my very heart something of the saying: “My beloved is mine and I am his.”

Oh Lord my God, how can it be that I have come into possession, and into the possession, of You, the One who spoke the heavens and earth into being? Only by your outlandish, steadfast love. So may it be, ever and increasingly.

The same outlandish gift is offered to all, beloved reader, no matter who you are, where you come from, what you have done, what you cannot do; Jesus is calling to all, inviting all to become fully his.

dw