Gladness and Singleness of Heart

Blog by Gem Fadling

I want to begin our conversation today with a prayer that we pray almost every Sunday at church. It is just one of the lovely ongoing prayers we pray together as a community.

Eternal God, heavenly Father, with great joy we thank you for graciously accepting us as living members of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and for feeding us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and mission, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you and others with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

I love every part of this prayer, and certainly there are multiple sermons that could emerge from the truths tucked within it. But today I want to focus on the ending. Particularly this phrase: “grant us strength and courage to love and serve you and others with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord.”

Let’s begin with the phrase “serving God and others.” Notice the prayer includes God and others.

If we lean too heavily on serving others, we can easily slide into exhaustion or even burnout. Serving others can often be a never-ending, thankless job. We find ourselves on the wrong end of other people’s whims, and it can be soul killing.

If we lean too much on serving God, then the unhelpful image of God as boss pops up, and that is quite detrimental to our relationship. There is nothing wrong with serving God—I have based my life on this—as long as we remember that first we are beloved children or sheep under the care of a loving Shepherd. The idea of God as boss can go horribly wrong if we lose sight of relationship.

When we maintain the pairing of God and others, we have the chance to remember and engage overflow leadership:

• God loves me.
• I receive God’s love.
• I pass God’s love on to others through service.

This process matters.

But what can help us lead in this way? Well, that comes next in the phrase: “with gladness and singleness of heart.”

I have to admit, I don’t often use the word gladness. So, to help us out, here are a few synonyms: joy, delight, pleasure, cheerfulness. We can love and serve God and others from a center of joy and delight.

I love the phrase “singleness of heart.” Every time I hear it, it just snaps me back into place. A focused heart.

This might be the “one thing” Jesus spoke of to Mary and Martha: “Few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42, emphasis mine).

If you’re like me, you might easily forget this one thing. Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet, allowing herself to be apprenticed by him. She was focused on his words and his way.

Our world is not set up to encourage us to move out from this focused center. The swirl of news, issues, and controversies is endless. Singleness of heart is a worthy pursuit, and I believe Jesus invites us to it in John 15:5:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

This simple way of abiding is what leads to much fruit that lasts. As long as we keep the first thing the first thing, we never have to be afraid that we’ll lose our edge or not produce enough.

What might help us live into this way of loving God and others with gladness and singleness of heart? The first part of the phrase is a clue: “grant us strength and courage.”

We need strength and courage because living a life of love is hard. Let’s be real. On any given day we get tossed about by all kinds of interactions and surprises. It’s easy to get knocked off our mission.

Asking God for strength and courage can help us to make our way in a life of love.

I hope you hear my heart here. I’m pulling this prayer apart so we can simply consider the phrases in light of our own hearts, lives, and leadership. It is always good to check in to see if we are leading in our own strength, sinking into unhealthy boundaries, or losing sight of God with us in this life of love.

The final phrase in this prayer is “through Christ our Lord.” That’s the only way any of this is possible. We can embrace all the best of who Jesus is—loving, nurturing, wise, focused, capable, and sacrificial.

So let’s return to this prayer. Join me…

Grant us strength and courage to love and serve you and others with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection 

• Try praying this prayer once a day for a week.
• Notice what happens in your heart. What emerges?
• Journal your thoughts at the end of the week.

Remember, you’re making your way forward one small, simple, and gracious step at a time.

Photo by Amos Bar-Zeev on Unsplash