The Ten Lepers

LUKE 17:11-19

It's easier to relocate than to renovate.

"Master! Mercy!

Far from me fling this ill I loathe!

Let me begin again some other place

With unblemished flesh."

And yet you tell them, "Go -

Not as you would be,

But as you are:

unprepared, unworthy, incomplete."

And by going,

Transfiguration.

Each persevering step

Accomplishes your will:

Less my perfection than my trust.

What mess lies exposed here, Lord,

As we strip back to bare skeletal beams?

Why should "Do you love me?"

Suffice as interview?

Little, unfinished, and poor my soul

But Mercy its architect:

Let the doors be opened then

On this work in progress

That all may come to know Him who builds.

By faith each leper walked away

Still wounded;

By faith I chose this renovation mess.

I will go -

Not as I would be

But as I am:

unprepared, unworthy, incomplete.

I will go -

Not to tomorrow

But to today

And by going

Transfiguration.