Loyalty

Joshua 24:15-31

Dear God,

I choose loyalty and fidelity to You.  Just as Joshua chose for himself and his family, I choose You.  I dedicate myself to You.  I will love everything You love, and hate everything You hate.

Competing voices clamor for my loyalty.  Advertisers spend millions of dollars trying to construct a public perception of a product.  They attach beauty, sex appeal, status, prestige, and celebrity to products as they socially construct value.  Marketing magnates promote, sell, and praise the products, in a quest to create brand loyalty.  They convince the masses that life apart from the designated brand is somehow incomplete, empty, and aimless.  The consuming, covetous populace is caught in spiraling dissatisfaction with life apart from this valued product.  As peers acquire the cherished brand, dissatisfaction only mounts, until the object of desire is possessed.   The black hole of desire, stirred by ubiquitous images of greed is never satisfied.

I choose loyalty and fidelity to You.

The doctrines of the age scream their propaganda, appealing to converts and devotees.  Postmodern tolerance touts its version of relativism with an “I’m okay–You’re okay” sentiment.  Tolerance preaches its doctrines declaring faith in nothing.  Nothing is right, except tolerance. Nothing is wrong, except opposing tolerance.  Meaningless.  Darkness.  Encroaching nihilism.  Loyalty?  Not to emptiness.  I cannot live like that.  You don’t want me to live like that.

I choose loyalty and fidelity to You.

People pull at me from every direction.  Flattery, bullying, persuasion, emotional manipulation, intimidation.  I have seen and felt it all.  I want to be loyal and faithful to others.  I want to be truthful, straightforward, open, and transparent.  But sometimes, in the interest of loyalty, I have to keep things secreted away in my soul.  I cannot share everything that I think I know.  I cannot expose my soul to a public tug of war.

Oh, God, in the midst of life that pulls me from every angle, help me to be faithful and loyal to You. I love You.  I need You.  I trust You.  I depend upon You.  Help me.  Strengthen me to resist the clamor.  Steer me into Your heart.

I choose loyalty and fidelity to You, Holy Father, Saving Son, Sanctifying Spirit,
Amen.