After over twenty years of ordained ministry, I made a discovery. I had been blind to an essential reality of the Baptismal Covenant. A reality that was so blatantly obvious, yet somehow I could not see it. I had always read and internalized the Covenant as a litany of imperative statements, but it’s not that at all. It is not a litany of commands but rather a litany of questions. The Baptismal Covenant is a holy and sacred invitation to intimacy with the Triune God and an invitation to join in the sacred and holy work of healing and restoring our broken world.  

The Church is not commanding us to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving [our] neighbor as [ourselves],” but rather asking us if we will. God does not demand and command our obedience but lovingly and longingly invites us to a life of obedience. 

Every moment of every day, life presents us with opportunities and possibilities. How we respond is the key. The choice is always ours. 

“Will you seek?” 

“Will you serve?”

“Will you love?”

It is one thing to do something because we are commanded to do so. It is very different to do something in response to an invitation, in response to a situation, in response to the realities of our world, and in response to the realities of our neighbors. 

Every day, we are invited to a life of awareness. What do we see? What do we hear? What do we feel? What do we experience? Perhaps more importantly, we are invited to a life of focused awareness—empathetic awareness. What does my neighbor see, hear, feel, and experience? And then, we are asked, “How will I respond?” Will I respond? Will I seek? Will I serve? Will I love? That’s where the rubber hits the road. 

As we live more fully into our Lenten journey, how will you respond? God is continually inviting us into a closer relationship, into service, into obedience, and into love. May our answer be, “I will with God’s help.”