Good morning…
God set our new semester ablaze as we gathered to study one tiny book, Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. As we have seen the horrific images of the mass graves found in Ukraine this week, I have pondered one long sentence from our class reading.
“She will learn to distinguish between those things in life – kindness, compassion, justice and truth – that are making her, and all of us, more fully alive and those things such as war and greed and selfishness that are working against the fullness of life.” (p. viii)
War.
Greed.
Selfishness.
These mass graves filled with lifeless, innocent people break our hearts from miles away. The perpetrators of these atrocities are human beings just like us, people also made by God, individuals actively working against the fullness of life. How are we to respond?
Jesus used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough” (Matthew 13:33, NLT).
Kindness.
Compassion.
Justice.
Truth.
Like granules of yeast, might we respond by mixing these Christlike qualities into our lives every day?
God, is this choice kind?
Lord, am I showing compassion?
Father, are my actions just and my words true?
As we prayerfully dialogue with the Giver of all life, our natural human tendency toward selfishness, greed, and war is overpowered by the gracious love of our living Lord. Activating the Spirit at home within our hearts, transformation is waking up, speck by speck by speck. Much like active yeast, the impact of God’s presence spreads, turning flour into bread.
God’s healing mystery rises with the Spirit – this is our only hope across this giant globe. Expectantly we wait, we watch while God permeates every ounce of creation’s dough, expanding eternal life from earth into heaven, both now and forever.
…Sue…
