Installment #1, Consecration, 12/23/01

    I awoke this morning with an old hymn running through my head.  "Take my life and let it be, Consecrated Lord to thee."  Now it's odd that I wake up to anything coherent, so I felt that this may have some significance.  Take my life.  Well, that's obvious...I must give myself freely to God, let Him use me as He will.  And let it be, consecrated, Lord to thee.  Uh, oh.  What exactly does consecrated mean?  Had I been in right mind, and not just recently awakened, I may have just bypassed this, as I have in the past.  It's so easy to sing these words in the church without even thinking about what they really mean.  Consecrated?  That's like, giving yourself to God right?  Now I was beginning to have some serious considerations, and I'd only been awake for about 3 minutes.  "I must delve into this later", I said to myself.
    In my house, the phrase that brings the most groans is this, "In this house we don't guess.  We always look it up."  "But Mom, if you know what it means, why do I have to look it up?"  So through the years I've come to avoid this question by going straight to the Random House Webster's College Dictionary that we keep in the living room for just such an occasion.  On this morning I did just that.  Consecrate:  1) to make or declare sacred; dedicate to the service of a deity. 2) to make an object of honor or veneration; hallow: a custom consecrated by time 3) to devote or dedicate to some purpose.  So we know that consecration has to do with giving of oneself to Christ.  But while I had the dictionary open, I thought I might as well look up dedicate, seeing as it was in two of first three definitions.  Dedicate:  1) to set apart and consecrate to a deity or purpose 2) to devote wholly to some purpose or person.  The second definition really struck me.  Wholly.  Consecration is wholly dedicating oneself to Christ.  Every fiber in your body, dedicated wholly to doing the will of the Lord and Savior of man.  How many times have I thought, "Well, I did this for Christ, now it's time to do something for myself".  Wholly.  Without thought of self.  I should be thinking, "Well, I did this for you Lord, what's next?"
    Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee.  Take my life Lord.  I give it wholly to you.  I withhold nothing that you have given.  Please use me to do your will.

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