save me

Of all the characters in the Christmas story, Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, seems most like me. I blogged earlier about his doubt. Today I read his celebration song in Luke 1:67-79. And I saw something that too often is present in my own prayers.

The first half of Zechariah's prophecy reads like a battle cry: " . . . salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us . . ." (v71) and " . . . to rescue us from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us . . ." (v74). It's only when he gets to verse 77, three-fourths of the way through, that he finally says, ". . . to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins."

In the context of the times, Zechariah was with a lot of Jews in wanting to be saved from the occupation of the Romans and the persecution of the pagan nations to the east. And this statement of his is included in scripture as prophecy, so I'm not saying he's wrong.

What strikes me, though, is how often I pray for relief from the hard things in my life. I pray for my house to sell quickly. I pray for relief from my cold symptoms. I pray for good roads as I have to drive. I pray for an important meeting to go well.

And usually, somewhere in my 10 minutes or so of praying I put in a sentence about forgiving my sins and strengthening me to resist temptation.

Like too many men at the time Jesus was born, I look forward to all the humanists being proved wrong, all the atheists having to confront their mistake, all those dummies who just can't see the truth (about refugees or gun control or morality or football teams) to have to acknowledge I was right all along.

I don't long as fervently for the day I won't succumb to temptation, the day I'll stop disappointing my Savior as well as my friends and family. Because really, deep inside, I feel like I'm doing pretty well. If we could just get the rest of the world straight, things would be pretty good.

I have to be careful to long for a personal savior, not a political conqueror. To do that, I need to remember that I'm the one that needs fixing