Our Wednesday Evening Book study completed our fall session last night with the last chapter of Ortberg's God is Closer than You Think. The last chapter challenges us to pray the prayer, "God, please make up there, come down here." In other words, "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Make our world like heaven, and use us to get it done.

As I was thinking about that yesterday, I thought that perhaps this was the crux of the book. If God is closer than we think, then what difference does it make?

I think that the difference it can make is that if we know God is close, then we realize that he is working in our world. If we love God, and if we are willing to trust and obey him, then he can make a difference, through us, in our world.

If we trust him, then we will be willing to say, "Make up there, come down here, and use me to do it." It's kind of frightening. Do we have enough courage to say that, because if we do, and if we mean it, we will be transformed, and through us, our world will be transformed.

It's the crux of the book.

Crux. It comes from the Latin for cross. This is our cross. When Jesus says, "Pick up your cross, and follow me," this is what he means, I think. He means, we should say to God, "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And use me to make it happen. It's the crux of the matter -- it's the cross that we are asked to pick up and carry. It's the difference that God will make in our lives and in the world. He will transform us to be more Christ-like, and he will, through us, transform the world to be like heaven. He's here. He's not just up there. He's closer than you think.

Image: Trees at VA