Good morning…
Whatever life phase surrounds us right now, this day and each day is distilled down to two simple tasks. Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them” (Matthew 22:37-40, MSG).
I love visualizing this one verse as two ancient, permanent pegs. Might everything in our everyday life hang from one peg or the other? Let me reflect on the items which collected on my two pegs yesterday.
Peg #1: Love God
Wake when God wakes me. Journal my prayers. Craft a morning message. Take a long walk with God, noticing new life bursting within and around me. Enjoy a candlelit bath. More deeply discern an Enneagram model integrating psychology (“soul” study) and our Christian faith. Prayerfully complete outline for “Self To Lose – Self To Find” class. Trust the Holy Spirit to teach through me. Thank God for our collaborative learning. Climb into bed at day’s end, grateful for all God is growing in and around me.
Peg #2: Love others as self
Pet, feed, and potty our dogs. Text with parents. Respond to loving emails. Ask for prayers from inner circle friends helping to advance the life work of 93-year-old Christian mystic Betty Skinner. Call Betty Skinner before bringing her wisdom to life in class. Debrief with soulmates. Listen face-to-face with a friend whose husband died last week in their 55th year of marriage. Text with a friend whose mom is struggling after brain surgery. Pick up my son’s tux from the dry cleaner. Pick up my husband after work, sharing quality time before, during, and after a relaxing dinner out. Wrestle as a threesome through an important conversation with our 17-year-old son.
As I slept, yesterday’s items mysteriously evaporated and I wake again to two wide-open pegs. I begin again.
Peg #1: Love God
Wake when God wakes me. Journal my prayers. Craft a morning message.
Peg #2: Love others as self
Pet, feed, and potty our dogs. Fold laundry. What will collect next? Only God knows.
Think about your own day. What will you choose to hang on your two pegs today?
Peg #1: Love God.
Peg #2: Love others as self.
Don’t you love that these two pegs are wonderfully wide-open each and every morning?
…Sue…
