Chicken or the Egg? Which came first: the chicken or the egg? The collect for this Sunday has a similar statement: Oh God because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts. We are like the man who says to Jesus Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief. Do we have faith because we believe…or do we believe because we have faith? So, we find ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. We want to please God, but we cannot do it without God's help. We might just as well say, Lord I want to please you, help me in all the ways that I fall short of pleasing you. All of this flies in the face of our culture that implies that we are independent and self-determined. But over and over again in the scriptures we find that God calls people to serve and follow him and equips them to do so. He does not call the qualified…but “qualifies” the called. Thanks be to God! This means that my desire to please God is not all up to me and my strengths and abilities. The very desire to please God pleases him and HE will provide the means to do so. Blessings,
Matthew+ O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP p. 233) | 
