Barkis is willin’

I was reminded this morning of one of our set texts at school—Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. In particular of Barkis, the local cart driver. Specifically of the minimalist way he proposes to Peggotty, the Copperfield family’s servant. Barkis got the young David to take the message:

"Tell her, 'Barkis is willin'!' Just so."

What a romantic he was.

It’s 40 years since I read David Copperfield, but “Barkis is willin’” has stuck tenaciously in my mind. And it came back to me this morning as I wondered about that word “willing”. It struck me that, although it can sound conditional, it’s really a statement of intent. Like the bride who says: “I will”. So I looked it up in Collins English Dictionary:

willing

1. favourably disposed or inclined; ready
2. cheerfully compliant
3. done, given, accepted, etc, freely or voluntarily

The prompt for my research wasn’t weddings, but idols. I’m reading through Tim Keller’s Judges For You at the moment (one of the perks of working here is I get to read books ahead of their launch), and was struck by this paragraph:

“We need to look honestly at each area of our lives—our families, our careers, our possessions, our ambitions, our time, and so on—and ask two questions of them:

• Am I willing to do whatever God says about this area?
• Am I willing to accept whatever God sends in this area?

Where either answer is “no,” there is the area of our lives and hearts which we have opened up, or already given over, to an alternative god.”

Challenging words. To paraphrase both Keller and the Collins dictionary:

Am I favourably inclined, ready and cheerfully compliant to freely and voluntarily do whatever God says, and accept whatever He sends, in each area of my life?