Criticism and ridicule can disable our energy and motivation. The Pharisees tried extra hard to be known as good people, experts at rule keeping to enforce the good. I’m my own Pharisee, pointing my finger at how I do not measure up to my own expectations and what I’ve assumed was a ‘good’ Christian. But following the way of Jesus is much different that what I’ve often assumed. Jesus is inviting us to be someone new, and wants to renew our thinking each day.
“What goes into a person—food or food eaten with “unclean” hands—goes into the stomach and out into the sewer. It passes through. The real problem lies in the heart, not the stomach. “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23, emphasis added).” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford
A prayer of worship:
“Created By You. Created For You.
Some days I forget who I am.
I get tangled in proving, striving, comparing.
But then I remember:
I am not an accident.
I am not a project.
I am not a disappointment.
I am created by God.
Which means I am created for God.
Not to earn love.
But to live in it.
To reflect it.
To return to it, again and again.
And that truth changes everything.
Because when I remember who made me,
I remember what I’m made for:
Belovedness.
Belonging.
Becoming.”
- Paul Dazet
No comments:
Post a Comment