Drawn to Him

“I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. – John 12:32-33

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

The other day I stumbled onto an old prayer from a Christian thinker from the 1800s, Søren Kierkegaard. (That’s Danish, just don’t worry about it!) This prayer was inspired by Jesus’s words in John chapter 12: “I will draw all people to myself.”

What Kierkegaard realized was that Jesus is not the only thing trying to draw us in, and that our hearts are only too ready to take the bait hook, line, and sinker. Even though this prayer is over 150 years old, so many of the siren songs of life that he named are really no different today. (If anything, 24-hour news and social media have only added fuel to “the present moment with its deceptive importance,” and smartphones and streaming services have revolutionized “amusement’s careless squandering of time.”)

If we’re going to be drawn to Jesus, rather than spending our days and lives wandering along side streets that ultimately lead nowhere, Kierkegaard believed it will take prayer and—don’t miss this!—self-examination. 

That means you and I need to be in the habit of pausing, reflecting, and considering: What is directing my thoughts, my time, my desires and priorities today? Where is my focus? What am I chasing after? Christians need to practice that kind of regular, intentional self-evaluation. And if I find that I’m chasing anything other than Jesus and his Kingdom, then I know it’s time for a course correction.

Here’s Kierkegaard’s prayer. Chew on it. Pray it!

O Lord Jesus Christ, weak is our foolish heart, and only too ready to let itself be drawn in—and there are so many things that would draw it to themselves. There’s pleasure, with its seducing power, there are options and variety with their confusing distractions, the present moment with its deceptive importance, and busyness with its vain toil, and amusement’s careless squandering of time, and sadness’s gloomy brooding—all of these would draw our attention away to themselves, in order to deceive us. But you who are the truth, only you our Savior and Redeemer, can truly draw someone to you, like you promised to do, to draw all people to yourself. So God grant that, by self-examination, we may snap out of it, so that you, according to your word, can draw us to yourself. (from The Prayers of Kierkegaard, 88)